


Cirque du LazyTown

by CaptainLeBubbles



Category: LazyTown
Genre: Alternate Universe - Circus, Found Families, Gen, M/M, Magic-Users, Slow Burn, Suspension Of Disbelief, ship as background noise to the plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-03-03
Packaged: 2018-09-15 16:44:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 53,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9245684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainLeBubbles/pseuds/CaptainLeBubbles
Summary: In the ring, he's Roberto the Great, and he runs the Cirque du LazyTown,  one of the grandest shows in all the world.In reality, he's Robbie Rotten, and his circus has been reduced to three clowns, seven kids, several animatronic puppets, and a pig.The Cirque du LazyTown was once a grand affair, but over the years it's gone downhill. Robbie is struggling to keep the circus going, but with most of their performers gone, they're running out of acts to draw the crowds. Stephanie, one of the performers, makes a wish on a falling star, and the very next day finds Sportacus, a traveler capable of almost any feat they suggest. He agrees to help their circus- and with his help, maybe they won't have to lose the only home, and the onlyfamily, that most of them have ever known.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> First things first: Some of you may notice that "Twelve Days" is gone. After trying to go back to writing it, I realized I hated it; it was a convoluted and tangled mess and I had no idea what was going on. However, there are a lot of elements to it that I'd kind of like to reuse for later forays into that verse, and so for now it's gone and we'll see what happens later. For those of you who were enjoying it, I'm very sorry.
> 
> Now, onto _this_ show: If you follow my Tumblr you should have an idea of what's going to happen, but I think I may surprise you all the same. You've also probably seen the first draft of the prologue; I've edited that as well as added to it. I hope you enjoy!

-/-

Robbie tapped the end of his whip lightly against his calf.

He instantly regretted this, because he wasn't wearing the high black boots that made this look impressive and commanding, and all he'd done was slap himself in the leg with the flat. At least he hadn't hit himself hard.

He rested the whip over his shoulder instead, and strolled along the edge of the ring, watching the practicing performers. On the ground, Ziggy and the stooges, partly in clown costumes, were working on a routine that involved a comically large ladder. Ziggy was doing quite well: Bobby and Tobby were tall enough that the when they held the ladder up, Ziggy was dangling a few inches off the ground. Just high enough to flop about humorously, kicking his feet as he tried to “help” carry the ladder.

At the far end of the ring, Trixie teased an animatronic lion with a chair, laughing as it swiped at her, dancing out of reach, showboating for the non-existent audience as her routine got quicker and more exciting. A little way away, Stingy stood in the middle of an obstacle course, guiding an enormous white pig- creatively named “Piggy”- through a series of warm up exercises, by tapping the end of a cane on the floor in specific patterns for her.

Above, over a net, Ella balanced on one leg on a swing, her other held up near her head. Robbie chewed his lip nervously as he watched, and then Ella caught the rope in one hand before flipping down to hang onto the swing with her other. The shift in pose was fluid: one moment standing on one leg, the next standing on her hands, legs spread in a split before she straightened up and, with one quick heave, launched into a flip and then a mid-air pirouette. Before she could begin descending properly, Stephanie appeared, grabbing her hand and swinging her toward another swing.

Robbie let out a slow breath as they swung toward the platform. The acrobatics always made him nervous, but they were the last real draw the circus had and he couldn't wipe them from the program. No one really cared about the clowns or Stingy and his pig: they were only there to be amusing, and everyone knew the lion was animatronic anyway. Trixie's tricks were fun to watch, but not as impressive or death-defying as _Danse Sur L'Air._ They had enough trouble drawing crowds as it was- get rid of _Danse Sur L'Air_ and he might as well close the circus down right now.

_Which might just happen soon anyway_ , Robbie thought, as he saw his manager approaching with a tall thin man strolling just behind him. Robbie sighed, and put on his best smile.

“Rikki!” he called, arms held wide in delight. He and Rikki exchanged the briefest of air hugs before stepping apart and adopting normal stances. Rikki leaned on his cane and looked around at the rehearsing acts.

“Rehearsals going well, I hope?”

“ _As_ well as ever!” Robbie said. “The girls are just working on their finale act now!” He gestured theatrically at the highwire, where Ella and Stephanie were seated on the platform and signing rapidly to one another, too fast to follow at this distance. “The logistics side comes first, of course,” he added, and threw his arm around Rikki's shoulder, leading him away. He didn't really want Rikki looking too hard at the performers.

“But Robbie, tell me, I thought you had more performers than this? Surely you haven't lost even _more_ during the off-season?”

Robbie gave him a flat look, and let his arm fall. “As a matter of fact we  _did_ ,” he said. “But! We  _do_ have more performers! Pixel is working on some equipment maintenance and the others are off in town picking up some things we need.”

“Of course, of course!” Rikki beamed, and smiled, and Robbie tasted acid. “But, Robbie.” Ah yes, here it was. The conspiratorial drop in Rikki's voice, the one only Robbie ever heard. “Robbie, you know I have a lot of money tied up in this circus.”

“Yes, I know. You've been very kind to us, helping us with our. Financial burdens over the years.”

“I have! I have. I only want to help, you know. But you see, Robbie.” Another drop. “I thought it was understood that I would get this money _back_ at the end of each season. Since then I have seen little to none of it. I'm starting to feel taken advantage of.”

“Right.” Robbie swallowed heavily. “We're- we're working on that. It's not easy, you know, when most of your performers are prepubescent.”

“Yes, well.” And there was that smile, the one that never quite reached Rikki's eyes. “You know, if you can't pay me back soon... perhaps there's another way to make the money back? I have that factory, you see... perhaps your performers could work off the debt there? I know what hard workers your children are, especially.”

There was a long silence, while Rikki gave Robbie time for the threat to sink in. Suddenly, Rikki took a step back, arms spread wide and smile back in place. “Something to think about. A circus! I never get tired of watching you all perform. Astonishing! You're all so  _talented_ !” He shot Robbie a look. “Until next time, Robbie.”

Then he tipped his hat and spun on his heel to go, sauntering off and leaving Robbie staring after him, the taste of bile in his throat and the feeling of a hand clenching around his middle. That smile of Rikki's, the broad beaming smile that encompassed everyone and said “I'm here to  _help_ !”, had once been a beacon of hope to Robbie. Now it just heralded more and more problems.

-/-

Stephanie noticed that Robbie looked down after Rikki left. Rather than stay and monitor their rehearsals, he wandered off toward the back of the tent, a little aimless in his gait. She watched him disappear out the back, and turned to tell Ella that she wanted to take a break. Ella agreed- she was tired of being up on the platforms too- and the girls climbed down, Ella trotting off to get a bottle of water while Stephanie followed the path Robbie had taken, until she found him out behind the tent sucking irritably on a lollipop.

“Robbie?”

He jumped when she approached, then gave her a flat look. “Oh, it's you. Taking a break?”

“Yes. Are you okay? You seem upset.”

“I'm fine.” He dropped the lollipop to the ground and crushed it under his heel with a growl. “Absolutely _fine_. It's not like I'm about to lose everything I've worked for all these years or anything- everything's _peachy keen_.”

The lollipop was practically powder now. Stephanie winced, and moved closer. She rested a gentle hand on his arm. “Robbie?”

He just sighed. He seemed so- so _broken_ , just for a moment, before standing up and straightening his vest.

“Don't worry yourself, Stephanie. The admin of a show like ours is _always_ going to be a nightmare, but we've always managed in the past, and we'll find a way to manage now, too.”

“But-”

“No buts.” He pressed a finger to her lips. “Everything's going to be fine.”

She nodded, and he moved his hand. “Okay, Robbie. Um, do you want to come in and hear what me and Ella have come up with for the finale?”

“Oh, all right.” He gave her an indulgent smile- one that did nothing to banish the clouded worry in his eyes- and let her lead him into the tent, where Ella was already coming back from her own break. He beamed, and clapped his hands in delight. “All right! Let's hear it- _wow_ me!”

-/-

 


	2. Act I: Step Right Up and Join Us At the Circus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What does it hurt to wish, when you've nothing else to lose?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I regret absolutely nothing about the decision to include Jives.

-/-

Robbie watched over Ella and Stephanie's rehearsal after that, hovering near the net as they walked through each step of their planned routine. They fell to the net a lot- it was a natural part of walking through a new routine, but his heart still stopped each time, even though they never failed to land harmlessly and roll off to talk through this most recent step. How they weren't terrified he had no idea, but he supposed the acrobatics was in their blood- keeping either of them on the ground would be impossible, as impossible as it had for their mothers.

At least they proved to be a good distraction from his worries over Rikki, but once rehearsals were over and his brothers were ushering the kids off to get them cleaned up they came back full force. He chewed nervously on the tip of his thumb, looking around for another distraction, and-

-ah! “Pixel! Jives!” He hurried over to where the two boys were climbing down from the effects booth. “Everything good up there?”

“Totally slammin',” Jives said, throwing up a hand sign that Robbie assumed was “street” or whatever kids were calling it these days. “This tent is gonna be _lit_ on openin' night, just you wait, yo!”

He threw up another sign, and Robbie turned to Pixel, who was struggling not to laugh. “All the equipment is in top shape,” Pixel said. “All we've got left are sound checks, and we're gonna do those now that everyone is headed out.”

“Wait till after dinner,” Robbie said. “Come on, let's go inside, I'm sure everyone else has finished washing up.”

He rested a hand around either of their shoulders and guided them out of the tent and up through the yard to the house, where, as predicted, the other kids were already finished washing up and busy setting the table for dinner. Robbie sent the two boys in ahead of him, claiming he needed a moment before entering into all that noise. They hurried away, shouting to one another and the other kids as they disappeared into the house, and Robbie leaned back against the low patio wall, arms folded while he stared out into the middle distance.

The sky was an obnoxious shade of pink, the kind that his arts teacher would have sent him back to do again because “it's not realistic”. It reminded him of Stephanie, who was also an obnoxious shade of pink, and the thought of her brought a smile to his face that was immediately replaced by a frown. She would hate it in Rikki's factory. They all would- they were _kids,_ they needed to be- well, kids. It was bad enough that Robbie had to work them in the circus, at least during the off season he could give them time off.

Not that they ever _took_ it. Too many times he'd told them to “Go be kids, for crying out loud! Lie around playing video games, take a nap in the sun, be _lazy_ , something!” only to have them laugh and go back to practicing. It was unnatural, kids weren't supposed to act like that. They weren't supposed to _work_ so much.

Robbie scrubbed an irritated hand over his face. _What am I going to do?_

-/-

Robbie was still standing there some time later when Pablo appeared, carrying a covered plate in one hand. He touched Robbie's shoulder with the other.

“Robbie?”

Robbie startled at the sudden contact, sliding a few feet to the side and flinching before regaining himself. He tugged on his waistcoat and cleared his throat.

“Pablo.” He glanced at the plate, and then looked past him, into the dimly lit- and now empty- dining room. His brow furrowed in question.

“Stephanie said you'd been feeling down today, and Pixel said you'd mentioned not wanting to deal with any noise, so the kids decided to leave you alone for dinner. You've got a plate in the microwave, and I brought you a slice of cake. I know my desserts always make you feel better.”

“Thanks.” Robbie took the plate, and poked at the cake with his fork before taking a bite. Pablo leaned on the wall next to him.

“What's wrong, Robbie?”

“Why are you here, Pablo?” Robbie asked instead. He took another small nibble of cake. “You could be a world class chef, you know. What are you doing here with us, playing snacks peddler for a two-bit circus?”

“This _two-bit circus_ is my _home_ ,” Pablo said. “Why would I leave it? I'm happy here.” Robbie just sighed, and pushed another bit of cake around on his plate. Pablo gave him a worried frown. “Robbie. What's wrong?”

“I had a visit from Rikki today.” Another nibble. Pablo remained silent, waiting for a followup. “If I can't pay him back the money I owe him by the end of the season we'll have to find another way.” A soft growl. A sneer. “He suggested letting the kids work it off in his _factory_.”

Pablo cringed. “Well- you'll think of something. You always do.”

“Last time I _thought_ of something, my idea was 'borrow money from Rikki Rikur'.” Robbie scoffed. “Because I'm the _best_ at ideas, right?”

“Well...”

Pablo trailed off, not sure what to say. Robbie set the plate aside and pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes, letting out another frustrated growl.

“I'm going to lose _everything_! Everything I've worked so hard to _keep_! What am I going to _do_?”

“I don't know.” Pablo shrugged weakly. “But it sounds like you need a snack peddler more than ever, now. Can't have a circus without concessions.”

“You can't have a circus without a strong man or a bearded lady, either,” Robbie pointed out.

“Sure you can!” Pablo put on his best winning smile. “A strong man can only do so much, and a bearded lady is a cissexist attraction anyway. I know lots of bearded ladies- there's nothing special about it, you know.”

This, at least, got a weak chuckle out of Robbie, who picked his cake back up and stabbed his fork into it. “I guess I'd better start brainstorming,” he said.

“I'll leave you to it, then.”

Pablo patted his shoulder once and turned to head back inside; as he slid the patio door open, he saw obnoxiously pink movement headed to the stairs. He squinted.

“Stephanie?”

She froze. “Hi, Chef Pablo! ...I was just getting a glass of water.” Stephanie turned and held up the glass in question as proof, a guilty look on her face. Pablo gave her a small smile, and she glanced past him at Robbie, just visible through the half-pulled blinds. “Is Robbie okay?”

Pablo hesitated, then headed to Stephanie and put a friendly arm around her shoulder, very subtly steering her toward the stairs. “He's just having a bad head day,” he reassured her. “I'll check on him again before I head home. For now how about I walk you back to bed?”

Stephanie nodded, and let Pablo walk with her up to the room she shared with Trixie and Ella. At the door she gave him a hug good night, but didn't immediately get into bed. Instead she took her glass of water over to the window seat and settled down to look out at the night sky, which had turned a deep, deep inky blue-black. The night was clear, and the moon was a bare sliver, throwing the stars into sharp relief against the backdrop of the sky.

It was quiet in the house, a rarity: not completely silent, as she could hear Trixie snoring from her top bunk and the soft, whispery breaths of Ella on the other side of the room, and if she strained she could hear the nighttime sounds of her uncles and the boys in the other bedrooms, barely audible but still, very comfortably _there_ in the backdrop. She opened the window to let in a little fresh air and now she could hear even more- Pablo, on the level below them, singing about _fresh ingredients_ and _passion_ and _love_ while he cleaned up from dinner, the crickets and nightbirds in the field singing their night chorus, and even, or so she imagined, the sounds of fairies singing in the hills.

(Stephanie was the only one of the children who still believed that fairies lived in the hills. But her mother had told her about them, back when Stephanie was a very little girl, and Stephanie knew her mother wouldn't lie to her.)

She sat for some time staring out at the night, and was suddenly jarred from her stupor at the sight of a falling star. She straightened up and gasped softly. A falling star!

That meant she got a _wish_.

A slow smile spread across her face. What could it _hurt_ , really? To make a wish? If what she'd overheard Robbie telling Pablo was any indication, they could use all the help they could get.

Her mind made up, Stephanie moved to kneel on the window seat. She only had a moment before the wish magic faded, so she had to think quickly.

“I wish...” She hesitated. How to word it? “I wish for someone who could help use save our circus. Someone who won't hurt us later, like Rikki is.” A small smile tugged at her lips. “Maybe send us an angel! The nicest one you have...”

There was a long pause, and for just a moment the air seemed to get heavier and the noises of the night became slightly muffled. She thought she heard, softly, in the distance, the sound of laughter, but all of that passed in a matter of seconds, and Stephanie closed her window, a little spooked. Shivering slightly, she padded over to her bed and crawled in.

Okay. It was definitely time to sleep.

-/-

On the patio, Robbie straightened, a strange feeling passing through him. He wasn't sure what it was- a premonition of some kind, but a very vague one. He couldn't get any specifics from it.

All he knew was that _something_ was about to happen.

-/-

_A wish! A wish!_

In the hills, whispers dashed across the dew-spun grass, a murmur of anticipation that grew louder and louder before bursting, all at once, in song. Figures danced and gamboled in glee, spinning and running and jumping and tumbling and flipping and springing, unseen by any but their own.

And in the center, a figure in gold, stronger and more agile than any of the others, leaping higher and spinning faster, until the figures all came to a sudden stop, as one vanishing in an explosion of mist. Only the golden elf remained, and finding himself alone he collapsed backwards to lie on the hill, staring up at the stars.

The world looked different in the human realm. It would take some getting used to.

But still. _A wish_!

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't get the wish scene to stop trying to be like the one scene from Lilo and Stitch, so I decided to make it a straight up homage.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robbie gives the kids a day off, and Stephanie's wish comes true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Robbie does not understand why his kids won't just be lazy on their day off.

-/-

Robbie gave the kids off the next day. He cited being too busy to oversee their rehearsals, but mostly he just wanted to give them as much time to be _kids_ as he could, before-

-well, before nothing, because nothing was going to happen, but. Well. Before.

Regardless, Pixel and Jives were still up in the booth as soon as breakfast was done, running the sound checks they hadn't gotten to the night before. Robbie pinched the bridge of his nose as he stood at the base of the booth, listening to the slow, careful test of each speaker and mic in the tent. Granted, it was important to make sure the equipment worked after being in storage for the entire off-season, but still. It could be done later.

“Boys,” he said, tapping his foot impatiently. Above him, their faces appeared over the edge of the booth.

“Yeah, Robbie?”

“Do the words 'day off' mean nothing to you?”

“Of course they do!” Pixel said. “We're gonna go see a movie once we get done here, but this needs to be done first.”

Robbie tapped his foot again, folded his arms grumpily. “You swear you'll go see a movie just as soon as you're done?”

“Totally!”

“And spend the day _relaxing_ and _not working_?”

“Yeah, of course!”

“Swear it,” Robbie said. “I need to hear the words.”

The boys exchanged a look touched with a subtle eyeroll, then both held up their right hands. “We swear we'll take it easy today, as soon as we finish the sound check.”

“Okay.” Robbie sighed. It was the best he was going to get, and he knew it. “If you don't, you're grounded.”

They exchanged another look. “Grounded” meant just that- staying on the ground, and not in the booth, and someone else- someone who didn't know what they were doing-working with _their_ equipment.

It was a pretty solid threat. He'd followed through on it before. They both made a 'cross my heart' motion.

“Good.” Robbie folded his arms again. “I'll be back in- let's say an hour, to make sure.”

He left the boys to it after that, grumbling to himself while he headed out of the tent and back toward the house. On the way, he passed Stingy and Ziggy- Ziggy was lying on his stomach in the grass, staring very intently at a bug that was crawling on a discarded sweet on the ground, and Stingy was brushing Piggy, who looked as immaculate as ever. Robbie folded his arms and looked down at him.

“Stingy.”

“Piggy has to be taken care of _every day_ ,” Stingy said, not even looking up. He ran the brush along her enormous side, while she oinked contentedly. “You can't take days off when you're looking after another living creature. And Piggy is _my_ responsibility.”

Which was true, but Robbie didn't think Piggy needed to be cared for to such an intense degree. He shook his head. “Take a nap later, or something. You kids are supposed to be relaxing today.”

“Okay, Robbie.” Stingy still didn't look up at him, so Robbie just carried on up to the house. He passed by Stephanie and Trixie coming downstairs as he entered. Stephanie had a backpack thrown over her shoulders, and both girls were carrying skateboards and safety gear.

“And where are you two headed?” he asked.

“We're going into town to see if there's anything fun going on,” Stephanie said. “Do you need anything while we're in town?”

“ _No_ , I don't _need_ anything! Just go enjoy your trip to town. Do you need snack money?”

Trixie paused in putting her helmet on. “Nah! We're taking our lunch.” She gestured at Stephanie's backpack. “You sure you don't need anything?

Robbie unfolded his arms so that he could ruffle her hair, and chucked Stephanie's helmet playfully. “I'm sure. Just have a good time, and call me if you're going to be late.”

“Okay, Robbie. See you later!”

They headed off down the front walk to the road, so they could make the short trip into town, while Robbie folded his arms again with a sigh. At least some of his kids knew how to have a day off. He headed into the den and collapsed into his favorite orange chair with a heavy sigh. Now if he could just get the rest of them to take it easy, too.

What was wrong with them? Didn't they know how to just relax?

-/-

The so-called “Rotten Estate” wasn't as far from town as the deceptively overgrown woods surrounding it suggested, and the girls didn't have far to go before they'd entered LazyTown. They paused under the enormous apple tree near the entrance to the town to grab some apples to snack on, but before they could climb up three older children approached with a shout. They vaguely recognized them as some of Jives' classmates, but they didn't know any of them by name.

“Hey, Circus Girls!” called the one in the lead, a gangly boy covered in freckles. “Hey!”

They turned. “Hi,” Stephanie said, while Trixie scowled up at all of them and said, “We have _names_.”

“Yeah, but we don't know what they _are_. Hey, anyway, listen! There's a guy in the square doing sports tricks for apples! One apple, one sports trick!”

The other two kids nodded at this, and the girl pointed into the tree. “We came to get some apples to see what all he could do! You should get some too, he's really cool!”

Stephanie and Trixie looked at each other. “Apples for sports tricks?” Trixie said. “That's a dumb payment, doesn't he know there's a huge public property apple tree right here at the town gate?”

“Apparently not!” The gangly boy dragged the other boy over to the lowest branch and pointed. “Here, gimme a boost!”

The boy obliged, and the three girls spent several entertaining moments watching the the boys try to get into the tree, and fail. Eventually, Trixie rolled her eyes in disgust.

“You're never gonna manage it like _that_ ,” she said. “Come on, Pinkie, you can get those apples easy.”

“True. Help me up?”

“You got it.”

Trixie cupped her hands together so that Stephanie could step into them, and with one quick heave Stephanie had been tossed into the air. She grabbed the branch and hauled herself up, making her way along until she was within reach of several apples. She plucked a few and dropped them down for the other kids to catch.

It was fun picking the apples- Stephanie was perfectly at home in the branches, grabbing a few apples here, a few more there- she was careful not to get too many, and soon she decided she'd picked enough to satisfy the kids' need to see the 'sports tricks' in the square. She hauled herself down, dropping lightly to her feet to polite, amused applause from the other kids.

Trixie had taken their lunches out of her backpack and replaced them with the apples; Stephanie hoisted the bag and they carried their lunches while they headed toward the town square with the other kids, who were talking excitedly about the tricks the man had already done.

He was still in the square, handwalking his way along the length of one of the low walls around the square. There were more kids in the square, playing with a soccer ball while they kept half an eye on him, and a few adults as well, watching hopefully. A basket with about a dozen apples sat to one side, out of the way. The gangly boy took Stephanie's hand and pulled her over to where the man was- well, standing, for lack of a better word.

“Hey! Hey! Sport Man! We brought more apples!”

He pushed Stephanie forward, and the 'sport man' stopped and flipped over so that he was standing on his feet. He gave Stephanie a questioning look. “Hello.”

Stephanie pulled her bag around. “Hello,” she said. “They said you were doing tricks for apples. I've got some apples here, but- you _do_ know there's an apple tree in town, right? And that anyone can get apples from it if they want? You don't have to bother with an exchange.”

A slow smile spread across his face. “Yes- _but_ -” He winked. “I _like_ apples, and other people _like_ to see sports tricks. So why shouldn't I exchange them? Especially when it's a payment that's so easy for other people to get.”

It made a bizarre kind of sense. Stephanie took out one of the apples and handed it to him. “Can we see what you can do, then?”

“Of course.” He took the apple and took a bite of it, winked again, and headed a little way away. Stephanie backed up to join the other kids, giving him space.

They filled their morning like that, giving the man apples in exchange for seeing his tricks. He was impressive, doing an array of nearly-inhuman acrobatics, without even the aid of lines and wires, eating up the approval of the audience and about a third of the apples that he was paid.

And he truly did eat them- core and all, leaving behind only the seeds, which he tucked away in a little pouch at his side. This seemed to please the kids even more than the tricks themselves- every time he stopped to snack on one of his apples, they all clamored and whispered to see if he was _really_ eating the core.

“He's really eating the core,” Trixie said weakly, and then scowled. “But why is he standing on one hand to eat?”

“My guess is because he _can_ ,” Stephanie said, and suddenly her face lit up. “Trixie! Wait! I think this might be the guy I was wishing for last night!”

Trixie gave her a flat look. “He's too old for you, Pinkie.”

“What?” Stephanie took a second to get what Trixie meant, and her face scrunched up. “Gross! That's not what I mean! Trixie!” She rolled her eyes. “I _mean_ , he might be the key to saving our circus!”

“What? Since when does our circus need saving?”

“I'll explain later.” Stephanie hurried over to the man, who had finished his apple and was doing pushups, still standing on his hands. She was almost vibrating with excitement- had her wish really come true? “Excuse me!”

“Hi!” He dropped back to his feet and beamed at her. “Want more tricks?”

“No- well- sort of. I was wondering.” She paused. Here, she was suddenly feeling a little unsure. This man probably had a life and a job and didn't have time for them. Still... it couldn't hurt to ask. She cleared her throat to try again. “I was wondering if you'd ever thought about joining a circus.”

“A circus?” Stephanie was surprised at the change the came over him at her words, because, quite suddenly, he grinned and laughed, the picture of delight. “A circus! Oh, I love the circus! I used to go as a boy- all the colorful costumes, and the acrobats, and the lion tamer- and the _clowns_!” He bounced on the balls of his feet. “I would _love_ to join a circus!”

“Well, today's your lucky day, because it so happens that my family has one, and we really need some new performers.”

“And you think _I_ have what it takes?”

“Oh- yeah, I think you do.” She took one of his hands in both of her own. “Come on! You can come talk to our ringmaster and ask him.”

“This is exciting!” He _seemed_ excited, and he let Stephanie lead him through town, though he did stop long enough to get his basket of apples, strapping it onto his back before gesturing for Stephanie to carry on.

Trixie caught them up quickly, pushing her skateboard along side them. “Are you sure about this, Pinkie?”

“I'm sure, Trixie. Mr.- um-” She came to a halt, and Trixie and the man did too. “I'm sorry, I don't even know your name!”

He looked startled at that, and then laughed. He folded his arms over his chest, and then put his hands on his hips instead, grinning while he posed.

“Call me Sportacus!”

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The three kids who appear briefly in this chapter are throwaway characters and of little significance, but I wanted you to know that their names are Stasney, Keahi, and Terry-Marie. They're my babies and I love them.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sportacus joins the circus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think my chapters get longer with every one, whoops. I try to keep consistent chapter lengths but that hasn't worked to well for this fandom.

-/-

“You what?”

“I found the solution to our problems!”

“That's what I thought you said.”

Robbie turned his attention to the man Stephanie had brought home- this- _Sportacus_ \- who would supposedly solve all their problems. He had to admit, he could understand why Stephanie would be so taken with him. She'd always admired physically strong people, knowing somewhat firsthand the amount of work and self-control went into maintaining a physique.

And Sportacus, well... clearly he'd put in the time.

He was standing there in the den, beaming like the sun, hands on his hips while Stephanie patiently explained how they'd found him. He'd at least backed off since Robbie had woken, but that didn't change how unnerving it had been to wake up and find a pair of very blue eyes and a _very_ ridiculous mustache peering at him a little too close. He'd nearly had a heart attack.

Finally, Robbie waved a hand for Stephanie to stop her long-winded description of some of Sportacus's more extravagant stunts. “Okay, thank you, Stephanie, I get the point.” He glanced at Sportacus, and back to Stephanie. “What problems do you think this man will solve?”

Stephanie scoffed. “Our lack of performers, of course! I _know_ we need new acts! And Sportacus will be a great headliner!”

“ _You're_ our headliner,” Robbie said. “You and Ella. We don't need another.”

“Clearly we _do_ ,” Stephanie protested, “If the circus is so in dept that Mr. Rikur is threatening to put us to work in his _factory_.”

Robbie closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “How did you know about that?”

“Um...” She shuffled guiltily, and stared down at her shoes. “...I overheard you talking to Chef Pablo last night. But!” She raised her hands placatingly. “Even if I hadn't- we _did_ lose a lot of our performers in the off-season! We need new ones, and Sportacus is _perfect_ for the circus!”

“Stephanie..” Robbie folded his arms, and sighed. “We can't _afford_ new performers. That's why the others left- they found better paying gigs. The only reason we still have the ones we do is because my brothers are stupidly loyal.”

“I don't need paying,” Sportacus said. He folded his arms too, a nice change from the hands-on-hips pose of before. “Just somewhere to sleep, and something to eat.”

“He likes apples,” Stephanie said. “But he probably eats other things too.” She looked up at him. “What other things do you eat?”

“Well, I like other fruits and vegetables, of course. Carrots and oranges and lettuce and grapes and bananas and watermelon and cucumbers-”

“Yes, we get it, you like rabbit food,” Robbie said irritably.

“I also like cream and honey,” Sportacus said, unfazed. “But I _really_ like apples.”

“Well I can't _pay_ you in apples.”

“Why not?”

Robbie resisted the urge to facepalm. Instead he took a deep, calming breath. “Why do you want to be in our circus?”

“Because it sounds fun! And because I want to help. Stephanie says you guys need it, and from the sounds of things you do!” His face shifted, the grin not so much fading as softening, becoming gentler and more welcoming. “I don't need paying. I just need somewhere to sleep. Please just let me stay. I want to help.”

Robbie opened his mouth, gearing up to refuse again- but something about the way Sportacus was looking at him made it difficult to say no. He sighed.

“All right. As much as I hate to admit it you're right, we need another act. I'll call Milford and have him come around and write up your contract.”

It was hard to say who looked happier at this, Stephanie or Sportacus. They both laughed and bounced with glee, and Robbie allowed himself a small indulgent smile at how delighted Stephanie was.

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

“Right now we might as well get started on your costume,” Robbie said, standing.

Sportacus looked confused. “Costume? What's wrong with what I'm wearing?”

Robbie made a sound that could politely be described as a honk, and sat back down rather heavily. “What- what's wrong with it? Oh... oh dear...”

-/-

“So he's gonna be our new performer?”

Stephanie had climbed up into the treehouse while Robbie led Sportacus to the workshed to get to work brainstorming his costume, and found Ziggy and Jives up there already. They'd peered out the window at the two adults crossing the yard, and Stephanie had filled them in on what was going on. Ziggy was full of admiration for the newcomer- Jives less so, but he was prepared to be won over.

“He is,” Stephanie confirmed. “He's going to save our circus- you guys should have _seen_ him! He's _amazing_!”

“I bet he is,” Ziggy said. “He _looks_ pretty amazing! Oh, oh!” He took a lollipop out of the pouch at his side. “Do you think he'd like some of my candy?”

“You can offer,” Stephanie said, shrugging. “He's going to be here awhile, room and board are going to be part of his contract.”

“Room and board?” Jives looked puzzled. “That's whack, Stephie. Where are you gonna _put_ him?”

At which point Stephanie realized the flaw in her plan.

They didn't have _room_ for Sportacus. There were four upstairs bedrooms in the house, and all four were full up- with Stephanie, Trixie, and Ella in one, Stingy and Ziggy in another, Jives and Pixel in the third, and their uncles in the fourth, the house was pretty crowded already. And Robbie didn't even _have_ a bedroom, sleeping instead on whatever surface was most comfortable to him at the moment. Usually his chair, but they'd found him asleep on couches, on the floor, in his workshed, in the tent, and even on the dining room table once.

“We'll... we'll think of something,” Stephanie said weakly. “We have couches...”

-/-

Meanwhile, Robbie was in the workshed, holding various pieces of fabric up against Sportacus, who was standing still on a raised platform- well, standing, anyway. “Still” seemed like a tall ask: he was jiggling his leg, bouncing on his heels, doing some weird zen move with his hands, patting his hands against his sides, shifting from one foot to the next- it was tiring to watch. Robbie was really glad he never had to bother with fittings for his costuming. No way he could get the guy to stay still for that.

“Why can't I just perform in what I'm wearing?” Sportacus asked, as Robbie held up some blue and green material on him before shaking his head and tossing it aside.

“Because they're ridiculous.”

“Um.” Sportacus looked around at some of the other half-made costumes on display, and very carefully didn't say anything.

“That's not the same!” Robbie rolled his eyes. “You're wearing a fancy tracksuit and for the circus we need flash and pizzazz, we need razzle and- dare I even say it, _dazzle_!” He held up a bolt of gold cloth, and hmmed in thought. The gold cloth was set aside and he went for the pink next. “Besides, I'm going to put you into several acts, so you'll need multiple outfits.”

“More than one act?”

Robbie gave him a flat look. “You've heard how small our circus is,” he said. “Everyone does double-duty, triple and even quadruple duty in some cases.”

Sportacus nodded. “I understand.”

“ _Do_ you?”

“Well... no. But! I've never been in a circus before. I bet once I get the hang of it I will.”

“Don't bet on it,” Robbie mumbled. He held up a strip of glittery red silk, bedazzled to hell and back on one side. Sportacus gave it a horrified look and backed away involuntarily. Robbie tossed the strip of cloth aside. “You're right, red isn't your color.”

Sportacus breathed a sigh of relief, and looked around while Robbie considered a piece of gingham thoughtfully, attention only half on Sportacus while he worked. The costumes on display looked gaudy and decadent, but when Sportacus removed them, in his mind's eye, from the workroom and put them on the performers in the tent under the lights of the ring, he could see that they actually held a touch of subtlety to them.

“So is this one of your duties?” he asked. “The costumes?”

“Mmm. I was a costume designer for the old show, before I was anything else. You could even say it was in my blood.”

“Old show?”

Robbie snapped out of whatever thoughts he was buried in, and looked up, startled. “...It's nothing,” he said. “Yes, costume designer is one of my duties. I also built the animatronics we use for the show, and of course I'm the ringmaster.”

“That's a lot. What duties do you want me to take on?”

“Well at the moment we're going to put those muscles of yours to work.” Robbie considered two identical-to-Sportacus bolts of white silk against him, then tossed one aside and set the other with the gold. He took a step back, and looked Sportacus over. “It's been years since we had a strong man. All right, you can get down, I have what I need to make your costume.”

“Don't you need to take my measurements?”

“No. Now go away, I'm tired of you.”

Sportacus looked a little hurt by this, but he hopped off of the platform anyway and headed to the door. “I'll see you later, Robbie. Thanks for giving me this chance.”

Robbie ignored him: his mind was clearly elsewhere, examining the materials he'd decided to use for Sportacus's costume. Sportacus closed the door carefully behind him, and decided to go meet some of the other performers. He wanted to know more about the circus's history, and he got the feeling that he wasn't going to get it from Robbie.

-/-

“Yeah, Robbie doesn't really like talking about the old days,” Stephanie said.

Sportacus had found her first of the children, seeking her out through the pull she had for him as his wish-maker. She was in a treehouse in the backyard, along with two other boys, one of whom- the smaller one- she introduced as her little brother, Ziggy. The other was Jives, and the first thing he did was show Sportacus how to do a fistbump.

“Did something happen?”

Sportacus hauled himself up into the treehouse, but with the kids in it he only had room to sit on the edge of the open hatch. Stephanie pulled her knees up, giving him a little more space.

“There was an accident,” she explained. “About five years ago. Ziggy was just a baby back then.”

“Our parents died,” Ziggy said, in the open, matter-of-fact way small children had. “Ella's mom, too.”

“I can see why Robbie wouldn't want to talk about it, then,” Sportacus said. “Your parents were performers?”

“Yes. They'd been with the circus forever, they'd even helped start it.”

Stephanie hugged her knees now. She had a gloomy look to her. Sportacus fidgeted. He wanted to get more information from them, but he didn't want to pry or ask them painful questions. He decided to try a different track.

“And after the accident, that's when things started going badly?”

“That's what Robbie says.”

“I'm very sorry to hear that,” Sportacus said, at a loss for anything else.

“It's okay, you would have found out eventually.”

“I'm still sorry.” He gave her a weak smile. “Why don't we talk about something else? You can tell me what everyone does in the circus. You're an acrobat, right?”

“Yep! And the high wire act, too.”

“Wow!” He looked appropriately impressed. “That sounds _really_ scary!”

She blushed. “It's not so bad. Robbie won't let us perform without a net, so we're always safe.”

“Still.” He rested a hand on her shoulder. “You must be very brave, all the same.”

“Ooh, ooh, me next!” Ziggy interrupted them, waving his arms for attention and falling into Sportacus's lap. Sportacus helped straighten him up and grinned at him. “I'm a _clown_!” he said proudly.

“This is Ziggy's first year performing,” Stephanie said, suppressing her laughter. “He's really excited.”

“I can tell!” Sportacus put a hand around Ziggy's shoulders, and tickled him gently with his other hand. “We can be first-time performers together, then.”

Ziggy giggled, and fell against Sportacus again. “Yeah! We will!”

“What about you?” Sportacus asked Jives, who had been silent since the accident had come up, fiddling with a hand-held maze puzzle he'd taken from his pocket. He shrugged.

“I do sound stuff, mostly,” he said. “And juggle.”

“Sound stuff? Sounds like you've got a very important job.”

“Well..” He blushed, and shrugged again, clearly pleased. “The show would totally fall apart without good sound management.”

“Jives is _very_ important,” Stephanie agreed. “He does most of the behind-the-scenes stuff, not just the sound management. And he looks after us younger kids, too.”

This truly embarrassed Jives, so Sportacus turned the subject away from him, quizzing the kids about the other performers and the jobs they did. They filled him in happily, telling him about all the different roles everyone played. It sounded like as others left, those who remained had stepped into the roles they'd abandoned. Now everyone was stretched far too thin.

By the time he left an hour later, he had a much better idea of what he was working with to save the circus.

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We'll get some more history of the circus next chapter.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sportacus gets to know some of the other circus people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said you'd find out more about the circus in this chapter and I did not technically go back on that, but I didn't want to infodump two chapters in a row so you'll have to infer from context clues.

-/-

Sportacus crossed the lawn and headed into the house, hoping to find one of the adult performers to talk to. The back door led into a dining room, and through a door on one wall he could see the kitchen, and a man dancing at a counter while he cut an orange into slices. Sportacus gave a relieved smile and headed over. The man didn't look like he was related to Robbie, so Sportacus hazarded a guess that he was Chef Pablo, the cook the kids had told him about.

“Hello!” he called from the doorway. The man gave a startled yelp and launched the knife he was working with over his shoulder, planting it a few inches deep in the wall behind him. Judging by the holes in said wall, this wasn't a new occurrence.

“Hello! You must be Sportacus,” he said, while he retrieved his knife. “Come on in, I only do that when I'm startled.”

“I didn't mean to startle you. You're Pablo, right? How did you know who I am?”

“Word gets around.” Pablo reached around to pluck an apple from the fruit bowl and handed it to Sportacus. “I'm just having myself a snack. Join me?”

Sportacus sat down as he was bid, and took a bite of the offered apple, while Pablo put his knife away and began peeling the orange he'd been slicing.

“So, you've already heard of me?”

“Like I said, word gets around. The kids were talking about you when I got here- and Robbie told me when I took him his lunch.”

“I don't think he likes me very much.”

“Probably not. Don't let it get you down, Robbie doesn't like _anybody_ , except maybe his kids. He doesn't even like me that much, and we've been friends for over two decades.”

Sportacus smiled. “I'm sure that's not true.”

“Give it time. You'll see.”

“Why stay then? If you don't mind my asking,” Sportacus added. “The kids said you're the best chef in the world. Why stay with a failing circus?”

Pablo rolled his eyes. “I'm exaggerating, but you believe them instantly?” He shook his head. “No, I am pretty good. But this circus is my home- I've been here since I was sixteen, I was part of the original crew. I'm not gonna desert it just because we've had some bad luck. Besides, if I leave, who's gonna feed the kids and make sure Robbie actually eats every day?”

“I see.” Sportacus plucked the seeds from his apple and took a bite of the core. Pablo raised an eyebrow.

“You really do eat the cores. I thought the kids were exaggerating.”

Sportacus just shrugged, and used having his mouth full as an excuse to say nothing. He was thinking, about the circus and about Robbie and about what Pablo had said.

Once he'd finished his apple, Sportacus stood. “I have to go,” he said. “It was nice meeting you.”

“See you later. And hey, welcome to the show!”

-/-

Stephanie wasn't sure what drew her to the tent, except that she knew, instinctively, that she ought to be there. She was right, of course, just like she always was: when she went in, there was Ella, sitting on one of the high swings above the net. She wasn't practicing any moves that Stephanie could see, just swinging, so Stephanie hauled herself up the ladder to the platform and called out to her. Ella turned and spotted her, and then, with all the practiced ease of her years as an acrobat, swung herself down and over to the platform as well.

“You know we're not supposed to be up here without Robbie or one of the uncles to watch us,” Stephanie said.

Ella just shrugged, and sat down beside her. For a long moment there was silence, the two girls swinging their feet together high above the ground. That was how it was with Ella- always quiet, always a lull. She only really came to life when they were in the air. Sometimes, when Stephanie was annoyed with her over one of her pranks, she had unkind thoughts about Ella being a bit like a wind-up doll, and when she was on the ground she was wound down.

(She always regretted those thoughts later. They weren't fair to Ella.)

Eventually, Ella raised her hands and nudged Stephanie, signing a query about Sportacus. Stephanie laughed.

“He's joining our circus! I think Robbie's going to make him a strong man.”

Ella didn't say anything after that, so Stephanie went back to swinging her legs in silence. This time she was the one who broke it.

“Do you ever think about how it must have felt for them? I know how I feel when I'm performing, but do you think she felt the same way?”

Ella shook her head. Stephanie laughed.

“I guess not. It's really different for us, isn't it?”

Ella gave her a flat look. _We're_ _ **kids** _ _._

“True.”

-/-

Fabric floated in the air, moving around the workroom seemingly of its own volition. Most of it was held at bay, pushed back away from the workspace, but occasionally some of it would move forward to drape around- and this was the oddest part- a figure that seemed to be made from mist, hovering over the platform in the middle of the room.

Some of the pieces stayed. Others were returned to the array surrounding the work space.

Robbie was in his element. He was at his best when he worked on his costumes and his machines, the unending noise in his brain quieting until he could focus on nothing but his current project. Of course, there would be the payoff later, when the long focus and the magic use left him so drained that he'd fall asleep on the nearest sort-of flat surface, but for now he could not remember being more content.

It let him get his other thoughts into focus, too, to do this. Right now he was considering the situation with Rikki. He had no doubt that Rikki would put the kids to work in his factory- hell, he had worked kids before, after all. And given how much money Robbie had borrowed from him over the years, Ziggy would be in college by the time they'd managed to pay off the circus's debt.

No, letting the kids go to work for Rikki was not an option. Robbie would do everything in his power to keep that from happening, even if he had to send the kids away. He could probably convince the old show to take them on, there were still some people there who owed him favors. They'd probably jump at the chance to have another Rotten on their roster anyway.

But he couldn't be sure they'd be taken care of there, and as for their education...

Robbie gave a frustrated growl, and the mist figure vanished, the materials falling to the floor around him. He dug the heels of his hands into his eyes. The only real, viable solution at this point was for the circus to take in the money they needed- but he doubted that even with their new act that would happen. No one was going to pay top dollar to see a circus with a bunch of children, no matter how amazingly talented they all were.

All right. He stopped, and took a few deep breaths. He was thinking himself in circles. He needed to focus.

He counted to ten, slowly, and snapped his fingers. The mist figure reappeared, and the fabric jumped into the air, and the outfit he'd been building began rearranging itself in its place.

-/-

Sportacus wandered through the house, exploring, until he found himself in the enormous living room. It was the most comfortable looking room Sportacus had ever seen: it was filled with soft, puffy couches, a large shaggy rug filled the center, and there were bean bag chairs thrown into every empty corner and gap between the furniture. There were two boys in the room, sprawled out on the rug and watching a movie on a laptop. Sportacus cleared his throat.

“Hi!” he said. The boys looked up, the bigger one pausing the movie.

“Hey,” he said. “You must be Sportacus.”

“Ah...” Sportacus deflated. Had everyone heard already? “Yes, that's me. You already know about me?”

He tapped a device on his wrist; it looked like a computer. “Jives texted me while you were getting fitted. I'm Pixel.”

“The tech wizard,” Sportacus said, and nodded. “So by process of elimination, that makes you.. Stingy?”

“That's _me_ ,” the other boy said, sitting up and giving Sportacus a very haughty look. “So is it true you're here to join _my_ circus?”

Sportacus laughed, while Pixel shoved Stingy's shoulder lightly. “Yes, Stingy, that's exactly why I'm here.”

“Oh. Well. Welcome to the show.” He contrived to look even more haughty. “I do hope you're up for it, we set very high standards here at _Cirque du LazyTown_. That's why there's so few of us. We _only_ take the very best.”

“I'll do my best,” Sportacus said, struggling not to laugh. “Do you mind if I stay and join you? I already got to know Stephanie and Ziggy and Jives. I'd like to talk to you two as well.”

“Sure.” Pixel closed the computer, and the boys sat up, patting the spot beside them. “We were watching a movie, but we've already seen it.”

“Don't let me interrupt...”

“No, seriously, it's fine,” Stingy said. “We were only watching it because Robbie gets antsy if we don't relax and take it easy on our days off. We were actually getting a little antsy for something to do.”

“Why don't we go outside then?” Sportacus asked. “I'm getting a little antsy myself from sitting down so long. I really need to move around.”

“Okay!” Stingy bounced to his feet. “I know! I'll go get _my_ soccer ball, and we can play with it!”

“That sounds great!”

-/-

Ten minutes later saw the three of them outside, kicking a soccer ball around the front yard while they chatted. The boys were suitably impressed with Sportacus's tricks, and when Jives and Ziggy turned up they joined them, not really playing anything with a score. The kids were happy, and none noticed that Sportacus was keeping a close eye on how they interacted with one another.

They were laughing over a flub from Jives- who'd tried to mimic one of Sportacus's moves, and fallen on his butt- when Robbie appeared. He looked around at the playing children in annoyance.

“What are you _doing_?” he demanded, storming over to Sportacus, who kicked the ball up into his hands to pause their play. “It's their _day off_ , they're supposed to be _relaxing_!”

“They are relaxing!” Sportacus laughed, genuinely confused. The boys seemed pretty relaxed to him, after all. Robbie huffed.

“They are not! They're.. running around, and getting tired, and sweaty! That's the _opposite_ of relaxing!”

“It's a different kind of relaxing.”

Robbie made a frustrated noise. “Can I _speak_ to you for a moment? In _private_?”

“Sure.”

Sportacus let Robbie lead him away from the boys, handing the soccer ball back to Stingy as he did. They stopped when they were well out of earshot.

“Look, Sportaflop,” Robbie said, voice lowered almost to a hiss. “I don't have the luxury of giving my kids many days off. I would appreciate it if they actually got to _rest_ on those days.”

Sportacus didn't laugh this time. “But Robbie, they're _kids_. They don't just need rest, they need to play, too. That's rest for the mind.”

Robbie gave out another of his noises, and jabbed his finger in Sportacus's chest. “ _Do not_ . Tell me what my kids _need_ . You have _no idea_ how hard they work every day. When I give them the day off, it's because I don't want to _exhaust_ them. You've been here all of _three hours_ , do not think you can waltz in and undermine me just like that. I _know_ what's best for them, and _you don't have a contract yet_.”

He was breathing heavily, staring down Sportacus with all the force he could muster, so Sportacus held up his hands placatingly. “Okay, Robbie,” he said. “I'll... be a little more careful in the future.”

“Good. Now it's almost time for dinner. Will you be joining us, or do you plan to just eat apples instead?”

“No, I'll join you. Assuming I'm welcome?” he added.

Robbie narrowed his eyes at him, clearly thinking hard. After a moment, he nodded, short and sharp. “You're welcome at our meals as long as you're a part of our circus,” he said slowly. “Milford will be here after dinner to make your official contract, but I suppose we can still count you among our number even beforehand.”

Sportacus beamed at that. “Thanks, Robbie!”

He turned to head inside, following the kids, and did his best to ignore Robbie's eyes, staring a hole into the back of his neck.

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are a lot of rules for what wish-elves are and are not allowed to do in the human world, and I'm not always going to expand on these in the narrative so if Sport ever says or does anything that isn't given explanation assume it's related to that. (He's not allowed to take food that hasn't been explicitly given to him, for example.)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robbie confronts Sportacus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had never intended for magic to actually have a huge influence on this story, apart from the wish magic that kicked everything off, but the more I've written and plotted the more I've realized it's going to have a much bigger impact than I thought. This is why I revealed Robbie's magic when I did, because while my original plan required waiting awhile my new plans needed to go ahead and get things out of the way.

-/-

At dinner, Sportacus met the remaining members of the circus: Ella, the young acrobat who danced over the heads of the audience with Stephanie, and Bobby, Tobby, and Flobby, the three clowns who, from what Sportacus understood, were somewhere between big brothers and surrogate uncles for the children in the circus.

Bobby and Tobby both gave Sportacus cheery hellos and waved, but Flobby beamed at him and pulled him into a crushing hug, lifting him briefly off the ground before setting him down. Sportacus laughed.

“Hello to you too!” he said. Flobby just waved, still beaming.

“He don't talk much,” Bobby said, and Tobby added, “Or at all.”

“He uses sign,” Robbie explained. “You'll have to learn it if you're going to be here; Flobby and Ella both rely on it. Not to mention it comes in handy for communicating across the tent when it's too loud to use our headsets.”

“Of course!” Sportacus smiled, and hesitantly raised his hands, slowly brushing his palm over the other before bringing his fists together, index fingers up, and pointed one at Flobby. “I only know that little bit,” he added hastily, when Flobby started to respond. “But I'm happy to learn.”

-/-

Over dinner, all of the kids clamored for Sportacus's attention, all trying to satiate their curiosity about him at once. He was barely given any time to eat more than one bite of his salad at a time, interrupted as he constantly was by one child or another asking him questions. He did his best to divide his attention between them, answering their questions carefully.

“So, Stephanie,” Robbie said, interrupting one of Stephanie's questions about halfway through the meal. He folded his hands in front of his face and gave her an amused look. “Where exactly were you planning for Sportacus to _sleep_?”

“Um.” Stephanie turned as pink as her hair. “Well, um.”

“I can sleep outside,” Sportacus said hastily, before Stephanie got any more uncomfortable. Robbie gave Sportacus a look very similar to the one he'd used when Sportacus had suggested being paid in apples.

“I'm not going to make you _sleep outside_.”

“But I like sleeping outside!” Sportacus set his fork down and smiled. “I'm used to it, and I'd feel far more at home outside than if I was inside and closed in.”

Robbie was squinting at him again. Sportacus folded his arms on the table and met his gaze, the two staring each other down. After awhile Robbie looked away, rolling his eyes to save face. “ _Fine_ ,” he said. “If you're fool enough to sleep outside- be my guest. It's not like we have room for you in the house anyway.”

“That's settled, then!” He beamed, and returned to his meal.

-/-

Robbie's manager, Milford Meanswell, arrived some time after dinner. Stephanie ran to him and dragged him excitedly into the den, where Sportacus was doing pushups while he waited, and then Sportacus, Milford, and Robbie sat down to negotiate Sportacus's contract- well, Milford and Robbie sat down, while Sportacus paced, the itch to move returning after having sat down so much throughout the day.

It was late by the time Milford left, so Sportacus bid Robbie and the remaining awake kids good night and headed outside to find a place to sleep.

He found a likely place at the edge of the yard, where the cultivated land bled into the forest. There were two trees spaced reasonably far apart, so Sportacus began weaving a hammock between them, flipping and somersaulting from one trunk to the next, trailing a golden line from one hand.

As soon as the magic faded from it and it solidified, it was tinged blue and white, and looked so cosy and inviting that he threw himself on it with a sigh. He dug an apple out of his pocket and took a big bite of it. Magic drained so much more energy here in the human realm than it did in his own, where the air seemed almost coated in it.

Sportacus finished off the apple at leisure, picking out the seeds carefully so that he could tuck them away in his pouch. Once he was done, he flicked the stem away and folded his hands behind his head.

“You can come out now, Robbie,” he called. “Unless you plan to sleep outside tonight as well.”

There was a moment of anticipation, and then Robbie appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. He folded his arms with a huff. “Time to spill,” e said. “What is an Elf doing so far from home?” he demanded.

“I could ask the same of you.” Sportacus laughed, then rolled from his hammock and sprang to his feet, mirroring Robbie's pose with a gleeful grin. “It's not often one sees a Fae so far from their court.”

“I'm only... Fae- _ish_.” He let his hands fall. “What are you doing here?”

“Joining the circus.” Sportacus spread his hands in a gesture of goodwill. “I was wished here, so I'm doing what I was wished here to do.”

Robbie narrowed his eyes. “And what exactly were you wished here for?”

Sportacus backed away, and hopped back up onto his hammock. He swung his feet, making the hammock swing too. “To save the circus, of course!”

Robbie sneered. “And your price? Elves don't grant wishes for _free_.”

Sportacus said nothing, merely reached into the pouch at his side, and took out another-

“Apples?” Robbie asked, incredulous, when Sportacus held it up pointedly. “You really expect me to believe you're doing this for _apples_?”

“Why not? I like apples.”

Robbie buried his face in his hands. “Say it,” he said, voice muffled.

“What?”

“I need to hear those words. Say you're only doing this for apples.”

Sportacus laughed. “You're smart! Okay. I'm doing this for apples.”

“Apples.” Robbie's voice was weak, and he turned around, heading slowly toward the house. “ _Apples_. I'm going to bed. Good night, Sportaflop.”

Sportacus laughed again, and finished off his second apple. He felt bad for unbalancing Robbie like that, especially when he had every reason to mistrust Sportacus and his motives. Elves had a well-deserved reputation for trickery and coming out ahead of their dealings with humans, wish-granting elves even moreso.

And, much as it made the magic under his skin buzz irritably, this circus was Robbie's territory. It revolved around him, humming and thrumming with all the energy he poured into it. If Sportacus wanted to make any progress, he'd have to stay on Robbie's good side. Otherwise he might as well just go home right now.

-/-

When Sportacus awoke the next morning, there were several kids gathered around him, all of them holding something behind their backs while they shuffled excitedly. Since the sun was just barely touching the horizon, Sportacus was forced to wonder how long they had been there, and why. He sat up.

“Good morning.”

“Good morning!” Stephanie chirped. She held out her hand, revealing an apple in it. It gleamed, and he wondered if she'd actually polished it before bringing it out. “We brought you breakfast. We were wondering if you wanted to come do warm-ups with us.”

Sportacus took the apple, and suddenly his lap was full of more fruit, from the other kids- another apple, three oranges, and a pair of pears. He added them to his pouch, and stood. “I would love to!”

This pleased the kids; Stephanie took one of his hands into both of hers, and pulled him along to the tent. The three clowns were in the tent already, but Robbie was nowhere in sight. The kids gathered in a circle in the center of the tent; Stephanie placed Sportacus between herself and Jives.

“Robbie never joins us for stretches,” Jives said, guessing the train of Sportacus's thoughts. “He's probs still sleeping.”

“The light was on in the workroom when I went to the bathroom last night,” Ziggy said. He was sucking on a lolli, and he gave it a little anxious nibble. “I bet he stayed up late working again.”

“Of course he did,” Pixel said, rolling his eyes. “Have you ever known Robbie to go to bed at a reasonable time?”

“Not since-” Jives began, and then clamped his mouth shut. “...it's been awhile,” he mumbled, after a pause. “That's all. Let's warm up, guys, come on!”

The kids' warmup routine was a fairly simple routine of stretches and exercises, and after they'd finished they begged Sportacus to teach them any new ones he might know, and he filled a little time with that, pleased by how eager they were to learn. He'd heard humans were all layabouts, but these kids were active and strong.

He remembered Robbie's words from the night before, about how hard the kids worked, and felt a pang. Suddenly he suspected the kids weren't as strong as they were because they'd chosen to be.

He was showing them his own warmup routine- more complicated than theirs, but then he'd had a lot more time to work on it than them- when Robbie appeared. He beckoned Sportacus over.

“I've finished your costume,” he said. Up close, Sportacus could see bags under his eyes- had he slept at all last night? “Come out to the workshed once you're done here and we can get you into it.”

“I think I'm done here,” Sportacus said, and gestured for Robbie to lead on.

He and Robbie walked together across the yard in silence, broken only by Robbie yawning heavily. Sportacus gave him a sympathetic look.

“You didn't have to stay up all night on my costume,” he said. “It could have waited.”

“I was going to be up anyway. Might as well have done that as anything else.”

“Robbie.” Sportacus dashed ahead and cut Robbie off. Robbie gave him a sleepy glare. “About last night.” Robbie snorted, earning a raised eyebrow from Sportacus. Sportacus shook his head, and pushed on. “Look, I want you to feel that you can trust me when I say I don't mean your or your kids any harm. What can I do to show you I'm sincere? Tell me what you need.”

Robbie stared at Sportacus for a long time, studying him through a sleep-deprived gaze. Eventually, his lip curled. “I don't think there _is_ anything you can do,” he said. “I'm not stupid enough to think that it's as simple as a _test_. Now come _on_. The sooner I get you into your costume the sooner we can start working out your routine.”

He pushed past Sportacus and on to the shed, leaving Sportacus to sigh and follow. “Okay, Robbie.”

-/-

Robbie had, in his own not-very-humble opinion, outdone himself on Sportacus's costume. It was some of his best work, which considering that even his day-to-day wear was a cut above the rest was saying something.

“Here,” Robbie said, passing him the white undersuit that would make the first layer, and then, “What are you doing!?” when Sportacus tugged his shirt up over his head and then grabbed for the waistband of his pants. A furious blush spread across Robbie's face and he grabbed Sportacus's shoulders, steering him over to a part of the shed that was curtained off. “ _In there_ ,” he hissed. “You change _in there_.”

Sportacus laughed, and Robbie stood with his arms folded, willing his blush away while he listened to the sound of Sportacus changing and tried to stop his mind filling in all the blanks he'd left open by shoving Sportacus behind the curtain.

A few minutes later, Sportacus came out in the white undersuit and _oh_ , Robbie really had outdone himself. It was a simple white leotard, a pattern of silvery-white swirls giving it some texture. Here it looked out of place, but under the lights of the tent it would shine and draw the eye- as if the elf's magic would put the eyes of the audience anywhere but at him anyway.

The best part of the undersuit was the top- there were no sleeves. Though given what he'd seen a moment ago, Robbie almost regretted giving him a top at all.

The next layer was more detailed: a pair of boots and a chestplate, both made from the same deep gold leather, made to hug his skin and move with him as easily as if he was wearing nothing. The final touch was a sash and a pair of bracers, both in a brighter, softer shade of gold: something gentle to offset the deep gold of his shirt and boots, and a matching silk ribbon around his neck, to hold the crystal currently set in the clasp of his vest.

When he'd finished changing, he truly did look like the sun come to earth to play, and he was beaming again, examining himself in the mirror, obviously impressed.

“I look amazing!” he said. “You really are a master at this! Oh,” he added, when he reached up to brush a hand through his hair and his fingers grazed the tips of his pointed ears. His face fell. “My hat...”

“Ah! I knew I was forgetting something.”

Robbie gave him a sly look, and produced a hat out of nowhere: it was the same gold as his sash and bracers, with deeper gold stripe along each side, and held in place by a pair of goggles. It was made the same as his blue hat, which he appreciated. He put it on and adjusted it, then struck a dramatic pose.

“Well? Do I look like a circus performer?”

Robbie gave him an amused smile and sighed. “Yes... you really do.”

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As is probably apparent at this point, I've combined Sport with Ithro for the sake of this verse, but Robbie and Glanni are two separate beings with no connection beyond just looking very similar.
> 
> There's only one chapter left on Act 1, and I've already got it written; pretty soon we'll be getting to Act 2, and the plot can properly pick up.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rikki makes a suggestion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of Act I! Act II will begin in a couple of days (or possible tomorrow) because I need to sort out my plot again. Stay tuned!

-/-

Jives stepped out of the tent for a moment, tossing a red ball thoughtfully from one hand to the other. He was the only one of the performers without a real routine planned, since he'd been so busy helping the others plan theirs instead. Not that his routine mattered much anyway. No one really cared about a simple juggler, not when everything else was so exciting. Honestly, Jives knew he only had a routine at all because Robbie had needed to fill that timeslot with _something_.

He didn't _mind_. It was more fun to help the others anyway. He _liked_ being a dogsbody for the others.

Still would have been nice to know his routine was important to the show, though.

There was a figure in in a maroon coat and hat approaching the tent across the lawn, and when he spotted Jives he froze, and then grinned toothily at him. He crossed the rest of the yard in a few long strides.

“Jives!” he said loudly, spreading his arms wide. “How _good_ to see you!”

“Hello, Mr. Rikur,” Jives said, stiffening slightly when Mr. Rikur threw an arm around his shoulder and pulled the boy against him. “What brings you back so soon?”

“Oh, nothing special!” He turned them both and steered Jives toward the tent. “I just had a little time and wanted to come watch you kids practicing, that's all!”

Jives pulled away from him, a little uncomfortable. He knew that Mr. Rikur was a generous and loyal friend to their circus, but he couldn't help the uneasy feeling that came from being around him. Instead he caught Bobby's attention and waved him over.

“Mr. Rikur wants to hang out and watch our practice,” he said. “Is that okay?”

“I dunno,” Bobby said. “Robbie don't really like people hanging around.”

“Ah, but I'm sure he would make an exception for me, such a close friend and _benefactor_ as I am.” He was looking around while he spoke, greedily taking in all of the sets being worked on. Bobby and Jives exchanged uneasy looks.

“Yo, I'm... just gonna take you to Robbie,” Jives said. “He can decide for himself.”

“Of course, of course!” Rikki cast one last look around, gave a small frown, and bowed extravagantly. “Do lead on, young man, won't you?”

-/-

Sportacus changed back into his regular clothes, and he and Robbie headed back across the lawn toward the tent. Sportacus was feeling excited: he had some ideas for his routine, and was delighted to finally get to start working on it. It also seemed like Robbie was a little less uneasy around him than he'd been. It wasn't a huge change, but Sportacus would take what he could get until he found a way to convince Robbie he could be trusted.

Halfway across the lawn, they ran into Jives leading a tall, thin man in maroon toward them. They stopped, and the man eyed Sportacus curiously. After a moment, his face split into a wide grin that did nothing to change the calculating look in his eyes.

“So the rumors are true!” he said delightedly. “You _did_ get a new performer! I had _heard_ , of course, but you can never quite believe what children say, after all.”

“I tend to believe mine,” Robbie said, and gestured for Jives to go back to the tent. He did, relief apparent on his face. “At least, in certain circumstances.”

“Ah, but parents are naturally biased. But Robbie! Aren't you going to introduce me to your _charming_ new performer?” He was looking Sportacus over with clear interest, gaze lingering briefly on the crystal on Sportacus's chest.

“Yes- of course- Sportacus, this is Rikki Rikur, a, ah, _friend_ and benefactor of our circus. And this is Sportacus, our new strong man.”

Rikki held out his hand, a gleeful smile tugging at his lips. “A strong man! Why, you haven't had one of those in- oh, _years_! He certainly does look the part, doesn't he?”

Sportacus took his hand cautiously. He was getting a horrible vibe from Rikki, something that ran deeper than the man merely having ill designs on the circus. There was more to him than met the eye, and a much stronger deception as well. Sportacus shook his hand a little tighter than necessary, and was pleased to see the slight wince flicker across his face.

“I certainly hope I can do more than just _look_ the part,” he said, dropping Rikki's hand. “If I'm going to help the circus, I have to be able to pull my own weight!”

“I'm sure that's well within your abilities.” Rikki's eyes were narrowed at him despite his ever-present smile, studying him closely. “Tell me, Sportacus... where did you say you come from?”

“I'm from out of town,” Sportacus said. “I doubt you'd have heard of my village, it's very small.”

“Try me,” Rikki challenged. “I'm a well-traveled man.”

“Latabæ.”

Rikki grinned, a small 'gotcha' look touching his face. “Latabæ! What a coincidence that you should find yourself in _LazyTown_ , then.”

Sportacus said nothing, and Robbie put a hand on Rikki's shoulder.

“Tell me, Rikki, what brings you to see us today? Or did you just want to confirm the rumors of our new performer?”

“Perhaps. Just trying to satiate my curiosity.”

“Well, it's been satisfied- and you know how I feel about people witnessing our rehearsals, so I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave.”

“Yes, yes, of course, _of course_.” He took a step back, beaming. “Perhaps Mr. Sportacus would be willing to walk me to my car? I would _so_ like to see just a _bit_ more of him.” He looked Sportacus over with a slight leer. “ _Do_ grant me this one small indulgence? It's not every day I get to spend time in such... fine company.”

“I don't mind,” Sportacus said quickly. Robbie's lip curled, but he gave the faintest of nods. Sportacus offered his arm to Rikki, and looked back at Robbie reassuringly. Robbie just gave him a cold look, and turned on his heel to return to the tent alone.

“So, Sportacus,” Rikki said, taking Sportacus's arm and setting their pace at a light stroll. He twirled his cane absently in his other hand. “I suppose Robbie got you in on some sob story about the circus being deeply in debt?”

Sportacus gave him a politely puzzled look. “I'm sorry?”

“Well, he must have done _something_. Why else would you join a failing circus?”

“Maybe I thought it sounded fun.”

“I don't know about _that_.” They'd reached the gate now; Rikki let go of Sportacus's arm and took a step back, leaning on his cane and eying Sportacus thoughtfully. “You know... I could use someone with your... talents. I'm forced to wonder if perhaps Robbie could be persuaded to sell me your contract? I would value it at, oh...” He pretended to consider, before smiling broadly, showing his teeth. “Why, about the same amount that he owes me, in fact.” He winked. “ _Something to consider_.”

With that, he threw his cane over his shoulder and sauntered off to his car. Sportacus glared after the car as it pulled out. He'd never been a violent sort, but something about Rikki's... well, _everything_ , made angry magic sparks dance in Sportacus's veins.

-/-

Robbie was working with Jives when Sportacus returned, teaching him a simple conjuring trick to add a little more flare to his routine. He took one look at the poorly-disguised fury rolling off of Sportacus in waves and sent Jives to work with the clowns on their routine. Sportacus folded his arms, and waited until Jives was out of earshot.

“Tell me everything about Rikki Rikur,” Sportacus said. “And start with why I want to peel my skin off where he touched me.”

-/-

Robbie led Sportacus into one of the backstage areas of the tent. Sportacus paced irritably while Robbie sprawled in a makeup chair, but pacing wasn't enough to burn the anxious energy surging through him and he started doing pushups instead. He ignored Robbie's eyeroll at the act- Robbie knew what he was, he should understand.

“No doubt one of the children has told you about the accident five years ago,” Robbie began, and Sportacus nodded.

“They said some of the performers died?”

“Mm. Stephanie and Ziggy's parents, and Ella's mother.” Robbie leaned back and pressed his hands to his eyes with a sigh. There was a heaviness about him that made Sportacus want to reach out to him. “Well, that was when it all started going downhill. We were a proper-sized circus back then- everyone had one job, and they did it excellently, and the kids were... well, kids, mostly. But then after the accident...” He shrugged. “We just couldn't catch a break after that. Things always seemed to go wrong at the last moment. I don't know if it was because of the accident, or if the accident was just the beginning, but after that... anyway, we got a bit of a reputation, and people were less willing to spend money on coming to see us.” He held out his hands, palms up. “And after that..”

“And after that, everyone started leaving,” Sportacus guessed. “They found better shows that could support them more easily.”

“Exactly.”

“But what does Rikur have to do with this?”

“I needed money. The circus is a business, and a business comes with bills. Rikur is the richest man in town and he convinced me that he only meant well, and offered me a loan. And then another, and another... and now I'm up to my eyeballs in debt and if I can't pay him off by the end of the season, he's going to find other ways to make the money back.” Robbie sneered. “He's suggested putting the kids to work in his factory.”

Sportacus actually _hissed_ at that, and for just the barest moment he _flickered_ , before clamping down on his magic and returning to his usual sunny appearance. Robbie didn't react, but it was a close thing.

“I'm sure you can understand why I don't intend that to happen.”

Sportacus gritted his teeth. He was struggling to get control of himself; he didn't like it, but the solution to the problem was not, as his mind was repeatedly suggesting, to just go find Rikur and break his neck, thus ending any association anyone had with him. Doing so would be... frowned upon, and there would be severe consequences.

After a moment, he spun up to his feet, and stuck out his hand. “All right,” he said. “I'm going to help you save your circus.”

Robbie gave him an amused smile. “Weren't you before?”

“Yes. But _now_ I'm taking it seriously.”

-/-

End Act I

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rikki is fun to write but every time he appears on screen I have to rewrite my plot.


	8. Intermission 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be the beginning of Act II but it doesn't really work so I'm posting it as an intermission instead.

Intermission

-/-

Stephanie came out to Sportacus's hammock that night after everyone else had long gone to bed. Sportacus was sleeping when she arrived, but her proximity pinged in Sportacus's head and he woke up, squinting sleepily at her shadowy form. He swung his feet to the ground and covered a yawn with one hand.

“Stephanie? What are you doing up?”

“I couldn't sleep,” she said, and added, as explanation, “Trixie snores.”

“Ah.” He scooted over and patted the spot on the hammock next to him. She took the invitation and climbed up to sit beside him, gravity pulling them toward each other so that her arm was pressed against his. He pushed the toe of one foot against the ground, rocking the hammock gently. “When I was boy, I shared a space with my brothers. The oldest one snored awfully, it was the worst!”

Stephanie giggled. “Trixie sounds like an engine turning over. So when she keeps me awake I come out here and watch the stars until I feel sleepy enough.”

“You like the stars?”

“Yes. They're so pretty, aren't they?”

He nodded, shifting to lean back on his hands; she shifted as well, falling back so that her head was rested on his shoulder.

“You know, where I'm from- there are so many more stars. The whole sky is like one of Robbie's costumes, the ones with the sequins.”

She gave a soft little breathy ' _oh_ ' at the thought. “That sounds _amazing_. Why are there so many?”

“Because the lights aren't as heavy there. It's a tiny little town, so small it makes LazyTown look like a big city. So there's nothing to stop us from seeing the stars.”

“That sounds beautiful.”

She fell silent after that, content to stare up at the stars while Sportacus rocked the hammock slowly, singing softly to her as he did. It was one of his mother's old songs, and while his own voice wasn't up to her level of ability, it was enough to eventually lull Stephanie's eyes closed. She slumped against him, breath even and gentle in sleep. Sportacus stood up carefully and picked her up, cradling her against him while he carried her back up to the house.

He crept inside the sliding door to the dining room, where Robbie was sat at the table, the guts of some machine or other spread out in front of him. There was a desk lamp on the table, and a pair of glasses sliding down his nose. He looked up when Sportacus came in, and seemed about to ask a question, so Sportacus 'shhh'ed softly and passed through to the stairs.

Once he'd tucked Stephanie back into bed (Trixie was indeed snoring loudly), he crept back downstairs to the dining room, where Robbie set the screwdriver in his hand aside and leaned back in his chair with his arms folded.

“What was Stephanie doing outside?”

“Apparently Trixie snores,” Sportacus murmured, amused. He took the seat across from Robbie, and folded his arms on the table. “Do you _ever_ sleep?”

“Eventually. But this needs doing first.”

Sportacus shook his head, and leaned down to rest his chin on his arms, watching Robbie work. Machines held something of a fascination for him, as something that he didn't understand in the slightest, so he was content to watch Robbie work, focusing on his hands as they moved expertly over the machine's parts. It was a song of its own kind, a delicate hum, a warmth that filled the dining room and settled over him like a blanket, and slowly Sportacus's eyes drifted closed.

He woke to Robbie shaking him, and opened his eyes enough to give him a grumpy look. He was _tired_. It was way past his bedtime. What could Robbie possibly be waking him up for?

“Can't sleep there, Sportaninny,” Robbie said. “Come on, at least use the couch or something.”

He helped Sportacus to his feet and guided him into the living room, where the couches that Sportacus had thought far too soft earlier today looked very, very inviting now. He stumbled over to one and flopped onto it; he was dimly aware of a pillow being pushed under his head and a blanket being thrown over him before sleep caught up to him, and he was out once more.

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next update should be Act II.


	9. Act II: Everybody's Welcome At the Circus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robbie finally gets some sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should probably add a slow burn tag to this.

Act II

-/-

It took three days for Sportaus and Robbie to work out a routine for him, and another three days for him to nail it down in his memory so that he could work on perfecting it. It involved a lot of handwalking; Robbie had gotten tired of addressing Sportacus's knees so often and spitefully included the handwalking to throw him off. This backfired immediately when he realized Sportacus was more at home on his hands than his feet.

“I regret encouraging you to do that even _more_ ,” Robbie said disdainfully, while Sportacus shifted to one hand so he could lift a hefty medicine ball with the other. Robbie folded his arms and glared. “Don't you get dizzy down there?”

“Nah.” Sportacus dropped the medicine ball and flipped back to his feet. His face was bright red, and Robbie watched blankly as his usual fair complexion slowly returned.

“...listen,” he said. “I'm sending you and Bobby into town to put up posters. Can you manage that?”

“Posters?”

“Yes. Our opening night is two weeks from now, and I need to put word about you out if I'm going to get the audience in.”

“Oh!” Sportacus blushed faintly. “You know, I don't need to take the headline from the girls-”

“You're not, you're sharing it. Can you do the posters or not?”

“Of course.”

“Good.”

With that, he stormed off to get Bobby and the posters, while Sportacus wandered over to watch Trixie with her lion.

The lion was.. interesting. It was animatronic- all of the circus's animals were animatronic, except for Piggy; apparently when the circus had started several of the performers had expressed discomfort at the idea of having real animals living in such conditions, and Robbie's solution that allowed them to have animal acts had been to just... build some. Along with the lion, they had a zebra, a dog, and a chicken. The zebra and dog had a dance routine with Stephanie, but Sportacus had yet to see the chicken even turned on.

The thing was- Sportacus wasn't sure how the lion was _controlled_. He'd watched it- its movements were fluid, realistic, _believable_. From a distance, he could forget that it wasn't a _real_ lion.

Despite the unpredictability of it, though, Trixie moved with it in her own fluid dance. Sportacus's heart leapt into his throat when he watched her, constantly worried that she was going to get hurt, but she was always a step ahead of the lion's claws, always just out of reach of its teeth.

“There you are,” Robbie said, joining him. He paused to watch Trixie tumble under the lion's paw and bounce up behind it, using its mane to swing herself up onto its back. He raised his voice a little. “Well done, Trixie!”

She grinned and flashed him a thumbs up, then turned her attention back to the lion, while Robbie thrust an armload of posters into Sportacus's hands and stormed off.

-/-

Bobby and Sportacus walked into town at an easy stroll, which Bobby seemed to enjoy but Sportacus found agonizing. In town, Bobby found a likely looking wall, and showed Sportacus how to get the posters up. It wasn't hard; once the poster was up, they stood back to get a look at it.

“Looks pretty good. Wobbie definitely captured your good side.”

It was a little embarrassing, but Sportacus had to admit that in the poster he looked very impressive. He was at the center of it, angled so that he was looking up at the viewer, winking. He had one hand on his hop and was carrying a large platform on the other, and on the platform the other performers were being showcased. Visually, it was very stunning, but the implications behind the choice were... unpleasant.

“When did Robbie design this?” he asked. Bobby shrugged.

“Last night, probably. He said something yesterday about needing to do it.”

“Last- Bobby, when does Robbie _sleep_?”

“When his body takes the question out of his hands, I guess,” Bobby said absently.

Sportacus wasn't able to keep the horror off of his face. That was beyond 'not healthy', it was _dangerous_. Robbie was going to keel over if he kept that up- it was a wonder he hadn't _already_.

Bobby shrugged helplessly, and gestured for Sportacus to carry on to another wall, unrolling a poster as he did. He passed Sportacus the brush and held the poster in place while Sportacus smoothed it out.

“Has he always been like that?”

“Nah, only since a few years ago. It's probably stress, you know? Running a circus ain't _easy_.”

“It's probably even less easy when you're not getting enough sleep.”

“Well yeah, but what are we supposed to do? We've tried lots of remedies, none of them ever work. Even sleep meds only work for a few days before they stop working at a safe dosage.”

“Hmm.” They moved on to the next poster. Sportacus pursed his lips in thought. He did know some sleep remedies, but they were all magical or elven in nature. Despite an uneasy understanding between them since Rikki's visit, Robbie still mistrusted him and would likely not consent to anything.

Well. There were a few things he could do that wouldn't involve using magic on Robbie directly. Maybe Sportacus could try one of those.

-/-

Robbie had been helping Jives with his routine all week. He'd been teaching Jives a few conjuring tricks, some simple sleight-of-hand to make things visually more appealing. He as also considering the merits of teaching him to use a flaming baton, since that always got a few oohs from the crowd, but he wasn't sure Jives was ready to set any of his objects on _fire_ yet.

Admittedly, Robbie had been about his age when he'd introduced fire into his act, but. Well. He hadn't actually done it on _purpose_ the first time, and once he _had_ done it the first time, he couldn't just _stop_. He'd gotten a _reputation_ , that quickly. The crowds had _loved_ it.

Still, there was merit to the idea. He decided to suggest it on their next break.

“ _Fire?!_ ” Jives' eyes were huge, his eyebrows disappearing into his hat. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, before finally wrenching a “ _The fuh_??” out of his throat.

“You don't have to,” Robbie said, suppressing a laugh. “But it'll definitely give your routine a little more flare.”

He stopped there, to give Jives time to calm himself. His face slowly returned to normal, and suddenly he snorted, unsuccessfully trying to trap a laugh behind his lips.

“It _would_ give it a little _flare_ ,” he said, still laughing.

Robbie's face fell in disappointment. Puns were the lowest form of entertainment, above only mime, and the sight of one of his kids giggling to himself over an accidental one-

-well, he couldn't say he was surprised. Jives had a weird sense of humour. He pouted.

“Just think about it. I can teach you a lot of tricks when it comes to juggling with fire. Including how to put yourself out.”

-/-

It took a couple hours to get the posters up, and once they did Sportacus and Bobby started heading back toward the northern exit to town, which would take them back to the estate. On their way, they passed by a long, low building, which was spitting clouds of smoke into the air from one end. Sportacus got a bad feeling from the place. It made his skin crawl.

“What is that place?” he asked, though he suspected he already knew.

“That's Wikki's factory,” Bobby said, confirming his suspicions. “No one knows what he makes there, he sells it out of town.”

“Don't the people who work there know what he makes?”

“Well, probably, but we don't really get to talk to them to ask.”

“Why not?”

"Well, they're not really... I mean, they're prisoners. Sent over from MayhemTown on the work program. Wikki helps to rehabilitate them. Help them earn money so they can go straight when they finish serving their time. Occupational thewapy, he calls it.”

Sportacus gave a startled laugh. “That's- what?”

“Yeah, I don't really get it, but it helps them not commit crimes anymore by seeing the value in making an honest living.” He shrugged. “Come on, let's head back.”

“Okay..” Sportacus lingered for a moment, staring out at the factory. He knew the basic ideas of occupational therapy, but he suspected that the way Rikki handled them, the MayhemTown Prison probably had a high rate of repeated offenders. On the other hand, Robbie had asked Sportacus not to tell any of the others about their problems with Rikki, and so he said nothing and followed after Bobby.

All the same, the factory loomed in his mind, giving him a chill despite the almost oppressive heat of the day.

-/-

Pixel was the only one of the kids who didn't have a routine of his own, much preferring to stay in the booth working all the effects machines that would keep the show together for everyone else. Right now he was working on the music for the various routines, putting them together with the acts to time them perfectly.

He looked up when Ziggy appeared on the ladder behind him.

“Ziggy, you know you're not supposed to be up here.”

“Aww, but Pix _elll_!” Ziggy pouted at him, eyes begging, and Pixel sighed and beckoned him all the way in.

“Fine, but if Robbie catches you it's on you.”

“He's not gonna catch me. He went out to the shed to work on our costumes.”

Ziggy took a seat on the floor, stretching his legs out in front of him and waving his feet while he watched Pixel work. Ziggy loved to watch Pixel work, because he didn't understand an inch of what Pixel was doing and that made it impressive. Pixel was actually used to Ziggy coming up to watch him as soon as Robbie's back was turned, and he tried not to encourage it, but- well- honestly, he didn't think it was a big deal. The booth was safe, and if it wasn't, then why was Pixel allowed in it, and Jives?

“Hey Ziggy, what do you think of this for Sportacus's entrance?” He played a soundbite, a guitar riff, and Ziggy wrinkled his nose.

“It _sounds_ good, but it's not... _Sportacus_.”

“Hmm...” Pixel hit another one, this one a little quicker and jumpier. Ziggy shook his head again, and Pixel leaned back. “Okay, what do you think it should sound like?”

“Well, um.” Ziggy stood up. “Sportacus is always rushing around, right? So his sounds should be like- like whoosh! Fwish! Whsah!” Each sound was accompanied by a motion with his hands, and Ziggy sat back down carefully. “Like that.”

“Okay, soo..” He changed some settings on his sound board, and a fanfare, short and sharp, sounded. Ziggy nodded enthusiastically, so Pixel hit another one. “Like that?”

“Yeah! Just like that!”

-/-

Robbie was in the shed when he felt it hit- the pure, unyielding exhaustion, which rolled off of him in waves. He draped the materials he'd been working with over a nearby mannequin, then with a wave of his hand his scrap fabric was piled on the floor. He could probably make it up to the house, settled down in his chair, with his blanket and his pillow, comfortable (or as comfortable as he could get) and safe, but...

Well, the house was so far away, and he had this nice pile of fabric, and he hadn't slept in _so_ long, and he was _so_ tired, and--

\--he didn't think any farther than that. His body gave out from under him, dropping him onto the pile of fabric, already snoring before he'd even landed.

-/-

It was getting late by the time Sportacus and Bobby made it back home. The kids were already finishing up their rehearsals for the day and heading inside, up to their rooms and into the living room to rest before dinner. Pablo would be arriving soon to start cooking. Tobby and Flobby were cleaning up the mess left behind at lunch. Robbie was nowhere to be seen.

“Last I saw him he was heading to the workshed,” Pixel said, when Sportacus asked. “So he's probably still out there.”

Sportacus headed out that way, wondering how he was going to broach the subject of helping Robbie sleep magically. Admittedly, Robbie had probably already tried magical solutions, but Sportacus just wanted to help. The best he could do was offer, and if Robbie wasn't interested, he could refuse, right?

There was no answer when Sportacus knocked on the door to the shed, but when he pressed his ear to the door he could hear loud snoring coming from inside. He hesitated, then pushed the door open carefully. Robbie was inside, curled up asleep on a pile of fabric, sucking his thumb contentedly. Sportacus folded his arms and smiled, a little relieved. Good, Robbie was asleep, finally.

But that wasn't a good place to sleep, all the same. Sportacus reached down and picked him up, cradling him gently out of the shed and hip-checking the door closed. He glanced up at the house, then hesitated. It would be loud in the house, with Pablo arriving to cook soon and the kids no doubt going about their own play, and Robbie didn't have a bedroom to shut him in, just a den with a chair that wasn't much better to sleep on than a pile of fabric.

Sportacus made up his mind, and headed to his hammock instead. It was comfortable, and far enough from the house that the noise wouldn't bother him, and as the sun sank the temperature had dropped enough to not be unbearable anymore. He lowered Robbie carefully onto it, shifting him onto his side until Robbie mumbled contentedly and went back to snoring.

Sportacus took a step back and watched Robbie for a moment, a content smile touching his lips. Robbie looked different asleep, far less cranky and far more trusting.

There was a call from the house, and Sportacus glanced up at it before back at Robbie. He'd be okay on his own, Sportacus decided, and turned to head back to the house. He'd come back and check on him again later, make sure he was still sleeping.

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus begins the second act!
> 
> Act II will cover about two weeks, and will mostly be interaction based as we take time to get to know the characters and their dynamics, and some proper backstory as well.
> 
> There's a reason they broke the no-live-animals rule for Piggy.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rikki, what are you up to?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, I didn't want to write the latter half of this.

-/-

Robbie was still sound asleep when Sportacus went out after dinner to check on him. This was unsurprising; Bobby had explained that once he did collapse he tended to sleep for a good ten hours or more, sometimes well into the next day. So Sportacus brought out a pillow and blanket for him to sleep more comfortably, and tucked him in.

Sportacus didn't mind giving up his hammock for Robbie, but it did leave him with nowhere to sleep- he didn't like to go inside and leave Robbie alone, not when he wasn't used to sleeping outside like Sportacus was, not when he was dead to the world and any danger that might appear while he slept.

(Not that there was likely to be any danger, but it was still better to have a guard for one in such a deep sleep. They did live next to the woods, after all, and while wild animals might in general not be stupid enough to attack a Fae in his own Territory, it did happen from time to time.)

No, it was best for Sportacus to stay out here, where he could watch over Robbie while he slept.

Which still begged the question of where _Sportacus_ was going to sleep.

In the end, he lay down in the soft grass a little way from the trees, head pillowed in his hands while he let the stars above lull him to sleep.

-/-

Robbie woke to sunlight and steady, even grunts above him. He was far more comfortable than he had been when he'd passed out, and for that matter, he was far more rested than he usually was, despite how long he had to have been asleep. He cracked his eyes open, squinting blearily in the early morning sunlight. He was outside, in Sportacus's hammock by the looks of things. How had he gotten there?

He sat up and looked around, and found the source of the rhythmic grunting: Sportacus was doing chin-ups on a tree branch nearby.

 _Shirtless_ chin-ups. Robbie's face turned scarlet and he looked away. It was far too early to deal with half-naked elves so close at hand, sweaty and glistening with exertion. Robbie reminded himself very sternly that he didn't trust Sportacus as far as he could throw him, that he didn't even like him, only to have his treacherous brain point out that trust and like weren't necessary for admiring a view so fine.

...Robbie had to concede the point, and looked up again.

Sportacus had noticed by now that he was awake. He dropped from the tree and picked his shirt up. “Good morning, Robbie!”

“Sportaflop.” Robbie's eyes flickered over Sportacus. “Why am I out here?”

“You fell asleep in your workshed. I brought you out here so you could rest more comfortably. How are you feeling? Rested, I hope?”

“Surprisingly.” Robbie stretched out in the hammock and sprawled out a little. Sportacus still hadn't put his shirt back on. “Are you flirting with me?”

“Me?” Sportacus's eyes got wide, and suddenly he laughed. Rude. “Believe me, Robbie, if I was flirting with you, you wouldn't have to ask.”

“Then what is this?” He gestured at Sportacus, who looked down at himself and hastily pulled his shirt on over his head.

“I didn't-” His voice was muffled behind his shirt; he tugged it down all the way, mussing his hair almost endearingly. “-I didn't want to get my shirt sweaty.” He tucked it into his pants and picked up his vest. “That's all. Why would it be flirting?”

“Never mind.” Robbie swung his feet to the ground, and hid a yawn behind one hand. “What time is it?”

“About seven,” Sportacus said. He sat down beside him. “Um. I was thinking- I think you should take the day off.”

“ _What_?” Robbie leapt to his feet, and glared. His easy mood of only a moment before had vanished; he jabbed his finger in Sportacus's direction. “This may have escaped your _notice_ , Sportacus, but we are _two weeks_ away from our opening night and half of my performers are still perfecting their routines. I haven't finished their costumes. I still have to clean and run maintenance on all of the animatronics. _And_ I have to do all of that while overseeing the routines. I do not have _time_ to take a _day off_!”

He stormed off, arms swinging, and Sportacus hurried after him. “Robbie, wait!” He caught Robbie's shoulder. “ _Please_?”

Robbie yanked away, and leaned into Sportacus's personal space. “Do you _not get it_ ? I am in very real danger of _losing my kids_ . If I can't save this circus, they either go to work in a factory, or I have to send them away to keep them safe. _Taking a day off_ is not an _option_.” He took a deep breath, and ran a hand through his hair. “I'll be fine. It sounds like I got about twelve hours this time. That'll keep me going for awhile.”

He pulled himself up to his full height and straightened his waistcoat, then headed up to the house with as haughty an air as he could manage. Sportacus's shoulders slumped, and he sighed. There was no telling when Robbie would sleep again, judging by that rant.

-/-

Robbie might not be willing to take a day off himself, but he did give the kids one. It had been a week since their last, and they deserved a break lest they exhaust themselves.

“What will you do, Robbie?” Stephanie asked.

“I have to get you kids' costumes finished. My impromptu nap last night interfered with working on them.”

“You mean when you finally slept?” Stephanie said, blinking innocently up at him. He scowled, and shoved a spoonful of cereal into his mouth to avoid having to say anything else.

“So what are you doing for your day off?” Ziggy asked Stephanie. Stephanie considered for a moment.

“I think I'll go into town again,” she said. “Last time I went to town I found Sportacus. Who knows what I'll find this time?”

“Just don't bring it home with you,” Robbie groused. “Unless it's a very large chocolate cake.”

Stephanie looked puzzled. “But Sportacus is great.”

“I think one of him is _more_ than enough.” He shoved the last of his cereal into his mouth, and stood. “I have work to do. You kids make sure you _actually rest_ today. You've got a lot of work to do next week and I don't want you exhausting yourself.”

“Okay, Robbie.”

He left, headed toward his workshed, and Stephanie pillowed her head on her arms. “At least in town I can play without Robbie storming up and stopping me,” she said, and sighed. “Do you want to come with me, Ziggy?”

Ziggy perked up immediately at the invitation. “Okay!”

-/-

There wasn't anything going on in town. Stephanie supposed she shouldn't be surprised; it was rare that the kids in LazyTown bothered to leave the comfort of the indoors and air conditioning in favor of playing outside, and the adults were all working. Stephanie climbed the tree for apples for her and Ziggy and they wandered through town, munching on them while Stephanie considered stopping at the candy store for a few pieces of penny candy to suck on.

Mr. Rikur was outside the shop when they arrived, sprawled leisurely on the bench outside, licking a massive lollipop. Stephanie stopped in front of him and gave him a polite smile while she took Ziggy's hand in her own. She didn't like Mr. Rikur at all, but Robbie had been very clear that she was to respect him, given the power he currently held over the circus, and he hadn't allowed her to tell the other kids about their situation at all, which was why Ziggy gave him a bright smile and waved with his free land.

“Hello, Mr. Rikur,” she said. He paused in licking his lollipop, and something unpleasant flashed across his face before he beamed back at her.

“Stephanie!” he said, spreading his arms a little. “And Ziggy as well! Why, what brings you kids here? Surely you have a lot of rehearsing to do, I hear your show opens in only _two weeks_!”

“Yes sir,” Stephanie said, while Ziggy a little at his theatrics. “Robbie gave us the day off. We were going to get some penny candy.”

“Ah, penny candy.” He adopted a fond smile. “The joys of my youth! But I have a better idea, my girl, a much better idea.” He stood up, and beckoned them into the shop. “I'm sure your charming siblings would like some candy as well?” There were colorful bags near the door; he plucked down a reasonably big one and handed it to Ziggy. “Fill it up, my boy, and I'll pay for it. A gift, for you and the others.”

“Oh!” Ziggy's eyes were shining; he stared at the bag in his hand as if expecting it to disappear. He loved candy, loved it more than anything, and while he spent every bit of his scant pocket money on it, he could never get enough. He looked from the bag to Mr. Rikur a few times, while Mr. Rikur gave him a sly smile.

“Is something wrong?”

“No- I just- it's so- so much.”

“Ah, for you, perhaps, but for me it's so little! And I want you kids to have nice things. Go on, young man, there's plenty here to choose from.”

“O-oh, right! Yes sir!”

Ziggy hurried into the candy store, filling the bag with pieces from first one jar, then another, while Stephanie eyed Mr. Rikur suspiciously.

“Why are you buying us candy?” she asked.

“Do I need a reason to do something nice for someone?”

“Most people don't. Why are you?”

“Silly girl,” Mr. Rikur said, face curling into something not-quite a smile. “It's called philanthropy.”

Ziggy had returned to them with his bag of candy clutched tightly in his hand; Mr. Rikur plucked it effortlessly from his fingers and placed it on the counter. He paid little attention to the act of paying, handing over his money and pocketing his change without looking away from Stephanie's stern look. Once he'd done, though, he placed a hand on either of their shoulders.

“Why don't you children come sit outside with me awhile in the sunshine?” he asked. “It's such a lovely day, and I could use the company.”

Stephanie didn't want to, but she couldn't think of a good excuse, and Ziggy had already grabbed Mr. Rikur's hand enthusiastically, allowing himself to be led out to the bench, while Stephanie followed uneasily. She was beginning to regret her decision to come to town today, but there was no way to get Ziggy away now without telling him everything that was happening and scare him. She took a seat on Ziggy's other side and sat as primly as she could, taking the piece of hard candy Ziggy offered her without a word.

“So, children,” Mr. Rikur said, after he'd returned to his own lollipop. “How go the preparations? I do hope your new performer is doing well?”

“Sportacus is fine,” Stephanie said stiffly, while Ziggy bounced in his seat and beamed. Sportacus had become his new favorite topic these days.

“Sportacus is great!” Ziggy said excitedly. “He's- so cool! He's the strongest ever! In the world, in the _universe_ , I bet!”

“Oh my, that strong, is he?” Mr. Rikur placed a hand to his chest, astonished. He seemed to consider for a moment. “Wasn't your father _also_ a strong man, like Sportacus?”

“Yeah!” Ziggy bounced excitedly again, then stilled. “O-oh, wait. Do you think we're not being fair to dad to say Sportacus is the strongest ever?”

“Of course not, Ziggy,” Stephanie said, rolling her eyes, at the same time Mr. Rikur adopted a more somber expression.

“I don't know,” he said slowly. “I've never had any children of my own, of course, so I can't say for sure- but I do have to wonder- if I did have children- and then I was ripped so cruelly from them- I think I would like to think they remembered me fondly as being the _very best_ at whatever I did to make a name for myself.”

“Oh..” Ziggy hung his head, taking a despondent nibble from his lollipop. Stephanie put an arm around him.

“Don't listen to him, Ziggy. Dad was strong, but Sportacus is way stronger. I don't think you're wrong to acknowledge that.”

“But- but-” His shoulders slumped, and he pushed to his feet. “Can we go home, Stephanie? I don't really feel good.”

Stephanie stood up so quickly she almost lost her balance. She took Ziggy's hand. “Absolutely.”

She hurried as best she could with Ziggy dragging his feet along beside her, hoping he wouldn't notice until it was too late that she'd left the bag of candy sitting on the bench beside Mr. Rikur, along with a few pennies to cover the pieces she and Ziggy had taken.

It was pointed, and rude, but she couldn't help it. She wasn't going to accept gifts from someone who had such designs on hurting her family.

-/-

Pablo was putting lunch on the table when Stephanie and Ziggy got home, and they could hear the usual shouts and laughter coming from the other kids getting washed up to eat even from out in the yard. Robbie was on the front porch, no doubt getting away from the noise, when he spotted them. His brow furrowed as soon as he saw the look on Ziggy's face.

“Ziggy? Are you all right?”

“I'm fine,” Ziggy said quietly. “I'm- I'm not very hungry, I'm going to go lie down.”

With that, he let go of Stephanie's hand and hurried upstairs before anyone else could ask him what was wrong. Robbie turned to Stephanie.

“Did something happen in town?”

“We ran into Mr. Rikur,” she said, fury lacing her tone. “He bought Ziggy some candy and got him talking.”

“Of course he did. What did he _say_?”

“Um.” Stephanie rubbed her elbow with one hand, and looked away. Robbie never liked it when her parents were brought up. “He- he asked about Dad.”

Robbie was silent, then he reached up and rubbed at his temples. “Of _course_ he did.” He shook his head, and glanced up at the stairs. “I wonder what his game is?”

“Robbie?”

He snapped his attention back to her. “Go get washed up for lunch,” he said. “I'll go check on Ziggy.”

She nodded, a little hesitant. “Okay, Robbie.”

-/-

Ziggy was sprawled out across his bed when Robbie came in, knocking lightly on the door before entering at Ziggy's mumbled invitation.

“Stephanie told me what happened,” he said.

He sat down in the rocking chair near Ziggy's bed, and before he'd even quite got comfortable, the boy had slid off of his bed and climbed wordlessly into Robbie's lap. Robbie gave him a small smile and stroked his hair while Ziggy made himself comfortable. He was getting a bit big for this, true, but- well- he needed it. So Robbie allowed his lap to be crushed, rocking them both slowly.

“I think Sportacus is wonderful,” Ziggy said quietly, after a while of this. Robbie's hand stilled. “Do- do you think it's not fair to dad to think he's the best?”

 _Ah_. Robbie started stroking his hair again. “I think-” He sighed, and fell silent. His free hand was rubbing at the arm of the chair, tracing the intricate pattern on it, and he gave Ziggy a soft smile. “He built this chair, you know,” he said, instead. “Did you know that?”

“No.” Ziggy twisted to look at the chair, seeing it with new eyes. Robbie suspected he'd never properly _looked_ at the chair, but he'd spent a lot of his life in it- certainly Robbie had spent enough nights holding him while he suffered from tummyaches and colds and fevers and just plain bad dreams, and that wasn't including the amount of time Robbie had come up to find Ziggy curled in it with a comic book or one of Pixel's games.

“Well, he did. He built it when your mother was pregnant with Stephanie. He'd always liked building things.”

“Yeah- he was a carpenter before he joined the circus!” Ziggy sat up a little, brightening. “Right?”

“Right.” Robbie's brow furrowed in thought. “Ziggy... it's all right to admire other people, even people who do the same things your father did.”

“So it's okay for me to think Sportacus is the best?”

“Um.” Robbie hesitated. “I would prefer if you didn't, but my reasons have nothing to do with your father.”

“Stephanie says you don't like him,” Ziggy said, with all his usual candidness. “Why not? He's so nice.”

“I- don't _trust_ him,” Robbie said slowly. “We don't know anything about him, and he appeared out of nowhere. That's all.”

“And it's okay that I like him?”

Robbie sighed. “Yes, I suppose it is. I can't exactly stop you, and we're stuck with him for awhile, so you might as _well_ like him.”

“Okay.” Ziggy gave a content little noise and snuggled down into Robbie's lap, hand tracing the arm of the chair with a newfound reverence. Robbie smiled, and let his head fall back. He was going to be stuck here for awhile, it seemed, so he might as well relax.

Sportacus would be pleased, anyway.

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look, backstory.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sportacus has taken a more proactive role in making sure Robbie sleeps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Regarding the last chapter, I'm glad you guys are enjoying what a creep Rikki is, and I really can't wait till you find out just how deep the rabbit hole goes.

 

-/-

Two days later, Sportacus woke to rain. It started with a light sprinkling of water, drizzling down his face and pulling him from a lovely dream, but before he'd woken up properly the bottom fell out of the sky and he was drenched to the bone. He swung his feet to the ground and took off toward the house like a shot; he liked the rain when he was awake but it was still the middle of the night and he found himself thinking longingly of the dry soft comfortable dry couches in the living room.

He skidded through the sliding door and pulled it closed behind him, turning to see Robbie halfway across the dining room with an umbrella in one hand and a folded towel in the other. They stared at each other for a moment in shock, and then Sportacus's face split into a wide grin.

“Hi, Robbie!” he said. Robbie just scowled.

“Don't come any further,” he ordered. “You're dripping water everywhere.”

“Sorry.” Sportacus had the decency to look sheepish. “Um, I don't suppose you have anything dry I can wear, do you?”

Robbie just rolled his eyes, and shook his head. “I'll see what we've got in the attic.”

He turned to storm upstairs, throwing the towel at Sportacus as he did. Sportacus caught it and unfolded it with a laugh. He could guess what had Robbie so grumpy, that he'd been _caught_ doing something thoughtful. He decided not to draw any extra attention to it and instead started undressing, wrapping himself in the big fluffy towel and leaving his wet things lying in a pile just outside the door until they could be seen to.

Robbie returned a few minutes later carrying a bundle of clothes in his hands.

“You're in luck, our old lion tamer left some of his old clothes here when he left and he was only a little bit bigger than you, so this shou-” He stopped. And stared. And then smacked himself in the face. “Why do you keep _undressing_ around me?!”

“My clothes were wet!” He gave Robbie an exasperated look. He couldn't understand why Robbie kept acting like he was committing some great sin just by taking his clothes off. “What was I supposed to do?”

The bundle of clothes hit him in the face then, and Robbie spun around and folded his arms. “Put those on,” he ordered. “I'm going to go make something hot for you to drink. The last thing I need is for you to catch a cold right before opening night.”

Sportacus waited till Robbie had stormed into the kitchen to put the clothes on- they didn't quite fit right, tight in the shoulder but loose around the middle and long in the leg, but they were cosy and dry and would do until his own things could be seen to. He scooped them up from outside and wrapped them in the towel, then went and shoved the lot into the dryer. By the time he'd made it back to the dining room, Robbie had a mug of something that smelled of apples waiting for him.

“It's cider,” he said. “It's Pablo's, but he probably won't mind you having some, he's as taken with you as everyone else around here.”

Sportacus sighed, a little hurt by the accusation lacing Robbie's tone. He liked people, and made an effort to get along with everyone, and most people responded positively to that. He couldn't understand why Robbie hated him so much- not trusting him, sure, but Robbie seemed to downright despise his very presence.

Maybe it was time to do something about that. He took the mug and gave Robbie a hopeful smile. “Will you have some with me?” he asked. “It'll be a little while before I'm sleepy enough and it'd be nice to have some company.” He didn't mention that Robbie could probably use a break from whatever he was allowing to keep him up this time; he'd learned his lesson about suggesting Robbie take breaks.

Robbie just sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don't like cider, but I suppose I'll have a cup of cocoa.” He glanced out at the rain. “This _is_ a good setting for it. All right, fine.”

Sportacus brightened immediately, and made his way into the living room while Robbie disappeared into the kitchen again.

-/-

Robbie leaned against the counter and tilted his head back with a sigh while he waited for his cocoa to heat up. He wasn't sure what had made him agree to sitting cosy with the elf instead of working, but he couldn't shake the idea that it would be- _pleasant_. He sneered. Some elven magic, no doubt. That was the only explanation.

It _did_ sound nice, though. Sinking into the couch and relaxing, sipping on cocoa while the rain pounded down outside and he had no obligations or responsibilities to worry about. Talking with Sportacus or even just sitting in comfortable silence- his mistrust of the elf aside, he couldn't deny that he was _likeable_ , that he wasn't bad to be around, especially when one could get him to hold still.

Infuriatingly likeable. Robbie snorted. More elven magic.

His cocoa was done. He grabbed it and headed into the living room, where Sportacus was already tucked up in the couch, sipping on his cider while he gazed out the window at the storm. It was an impressive storm. The rain was a blinding sheet, lit up occasionally by a flash of lightning. Robbie started counting instinctively when one flashed, but the crack of thunder was far enough away that he didn't worry too much about the distance. They were at the edge of the storm, it seemed.

“It's nice,” Sportacus said, when Robbie settled down on the other end of the couch. Robbie hummed his agreement, but said nothing. It _was_ nice. He didn't want to spoil it.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the rain and the occasional bursts of light. Robbie felt comfortable here, warm and safe, like he was wrapped in a soft blanket. He realized Sportacus was watching him, a content look on his face, and he frowned.

“Why are you staring at me?”

“Because.” Sportacus shrugged, and took another sip of his cider. Was Robbie imagining it, or had his ears gone pink? “It's nice,” he said again. “You look so comfortable. I like it.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why does it matter to you if I'm comfortable or not?”

Sportacus looked surprised at that. “Because I care about you!” he said. “And because you never look comfortable, and that makes me worry, so it's nice when you actually relax.”

“I'll relax when my family isn't in danger,” he said, taking a grumpy swig of his cocoa. He should go, he thought, he should finish his cocoa and get back to work. He couldn't afford to relax.

He didn't get up. It was so... _nice_.. here. So comfortable. The rain was beating out a lullaby around them, the lightning had more or less stopped, or at least moved away. Sportacus was staring out the window now, humming softly to himself. The warm feeling was coming back. His limbs felt heavy.

What would it hurt, really, to stay here and rest? Just for a little while? An hour, he could justify an hour. What if he just closed his eyes? Just for a few minutes...

-/-

Sportacus broke off once Robbie's head lolled to one side, and let out a low sigh. His mother's sleep-song rarely took so long to take hold, but he supposed Robbie would have been fighting against it, even if he hadn't realized. He tended to fight sleep so often.

Oh well, he was resting now. Sportacus took his mug and put both in the kitchen, then slipped into the den to fetch the pillow and blanket Robbie kept on is chair. Once Robbie had been made comfortable, Sportacus settled down on the other couch, stretching out with a content smile. There were still a few hours till sunrise, and that meant Robbie could get three- maybe four- hours of sleep.

Sportacus yawned and stretched out. Magic was so _exhausting_ in the human world.

-/-

The rain had calmed down to a steady drizzle by the time the kids woke up, pounding down the stairs with shouts, or shuffling down with sleepy mumbles. They crowded into the kitchen, pouring cereal and cutting fruit and getting in each other's way, and through it all Robbie slept on. Sportacus winced when he peeped in on him- had he made the sleep-song too strong? Or had Robbie just been that tired?

Stephanie peeped around Sportacus to look into the living room.

“Wow, he's really out of it,” she said. “And so soon after the last time, too. He must have been _exhausted_.”

Sportacus looked nervous, but nodded. “I got him to sit down and relax with me last night,” he said. “I think that helped.”

“Well, _good_.” She folded her arms and they slipped back out of the living room. “He needs his rest.” She took his hand. “Come on, let's go. We still have to rehearse, even if Robbie is resting.”

“Of course!”

He laughed, and let her lead him out, both making a dash to the tent, slipping a little in the wet grass. Stephanie slid as they reached the tent, but Sportacus was quick, and caught her up, swinging her around as they skidded inside, both laughing. He set her down carefully. They were both damp, but not too much. They would dry out once they started working.

“The others will be out soon,” Stephanie said. “I just wanted to spend a little time by myself before they get here.”

“Should I go?” Sportacus offered. Stephanie shook her head.

“No, you don't count.”

Sportacus looked mock-offended. “Really! Maybe I'll go anyway, then!”

Stephanie giggled, and grabbed his hand with both of hers. “No, no! That's not what I mean at all! I just mean I don't feel crowded with you, silly!”

“Oh, is that all?”

He folded his arms as she pulled away, and squirreled up the ladder to the sound control booth. He didn't worry, exactly- she was used to such heights, after all- but he did keep a close eye on her in case she should fall. A moment later, the sound of upbeat, playful music filled the tent, and she was swinging her way back down the ladder just as quickly as she'd come up.

“I like to dance by myself before everyone comes up,” she explained. “Just for fun, you know.”

“Don't let me stop you.”

He took a step back, while she stilled, facing away from the seating area. He put his hands on his hips, watching carefully until she started moving. It was very different than the dances she did on the trapeze, or with the zebra and dog. These moves were made to be fun, not flashy or entertaining.

He gave her a few more before creeping up behind, peering over her shoulder to watch her motions, mimicking the slower ones, and then the more complex ones. It was an easy choreography to copy. He liked it.

Halfway through the chorus came a turn, and she spotted him copying her. She froze, missing the latter half of the chorus, and then burst into giggles, turning back and carrying on. The second run through the chorus, he was able to get the rest of the steps. When she turned this time, he saw she was trying not to laugh.

As the song started to come to a close, she spun toward him; he caught her and dipped her, holding her there as the song faded out. They held the pose for only a moment before both started laughing, and he had to straighten her up lest he drop her.

-/-

When Robbie woke it was light outside, the dim light of a rainy day but still not the dark night he'd fallen asleep to. He also felt rested again, rested as though he'd had a proper night's sleep for once. He frowned. He was tucked in, comfortable and safe.

_The elf_ , he thought.  He sat up with a sigh, and rubbed at bleary, sleep-crusted eyes. This wasn't normal- usually he might go over a week without any more sleep than an hour snatched here and there, and here he'd slept twice in just a few days- real sleep,  _restful_ sleep. It was unsettling.

Oh well, he had work to do, and he was behind now- he heard music coming from the tent outside and nodded. Okay, the kids were doing their stretches. Good. He grabbed his umbrella from behind the door and headed out to join them. Time to get started.

He heard laughter over the music as he neared. He couldn't help smiling- the gods knew his kids didn't have enough to laugh about, for all that they always seemed to find something anyway. He pushed open the tent flap and headed in, freezing when he saw what was happening.

They were  _dancing_ . It was unplanned, unchoreographed, just a group of people dancing to have fun. While he watched, Sportacus pulled Stephanie into a spin and dipped her; he spun her away and scooped up Trixie, spinning around with her before setting her back down. Ziggy turned a cartwheel and nearly fell backward- Sportacus caught him, setting him back upright. Everyone was laughing. Having fun.

Something painful shot through Robbie's middle. He wasn't really sure why, but- but the sight of his kids having so much fun, it  _hurt_ . His chest felt tight.

Robbie took a deep breath. He wouldn't interrupt them, he decided. They didn't get enough chances to just play, just enjoy themselves. He had no doubt they would get to their rehearsal soon. They were hard workers, they were dedicated. He could trust them.

He took a step back, and then another, and then headed across the yard to his shed, trying to push away the sharp feeling of regret burning through him each time he remembered the sight of Sportacus playing so happily with his kids.

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sportacus dancing with the kids is the most precious mental image ever I love it.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sportacus and Robbie have an argument, but it's cut short by an emergency.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning for this chapter for blood and semi-graphic body horror. It's about three paragraphs, and if you're not sure you can stomach it, then when Robbie says "last chance to back out" just skip down to where he says "it's done". The context of the rest of the scene should give you an idea of what happens.

 

-/-

  
Over the next few days, Sportacus shamelessly turned to his sleep-song to get Robbie to rest, dragging him into slumber after everyone else had gone to bed. He only used a weaker version, only gave Robbie a few hours at a time- he dearly wanted to give him more, but he didn't want Robbie to get suspicious. Let him think he was just tired. Let him think that his body was finding sleep on its own.

As it drew closer to only a week before opening night, Robbie informed them all that they would have to start getting everything move into the fairgrounds. The kids had all taken this in stride, but Sportacus had stared around him in shock at the tent and all of the equipment. Somehow it had never occurred to him that with a traveling circus, there would be the need to _travel_.

“How are we going to get everything moved?” he asked.

“Well, in a proper sized circus there would be enough of us that we could get everything taken down and put back up fairly quickly,” Robbie said. “But as we're not a proper circus, we've had to resort to other methods. Tobby!”

Tobby trotted over, rubbing his hands together. There were sparks of magic jumping across his fingers, and Sportacus suddenly realized something he should have realized sooner, that if _Robbie_ was part Fae, his brothers would be too. He glanced over at Bobby and Flobby, who were corralling the kids over to the other end of the yard, safely out of the way.

“Those two didn't get the magic genes,” Tobby said, guessing the path his thoughts were taking. “Just me and Robbie and-”

“You may want to move,” Robbie said. There were sparks dancing across his fingers now too, much stronger sparks, much better controlled. Sportacus wanted to watch- Fae magic was _fascinating_ to see- but he was smart enough to recognize the danger present. The tent was _massive_ ; two mostly-human Fae would not be enough to collapse it safely. He backflipped away and joined the children.

They were sprawled in the grass not paying much attention to the proceedings; no doubt they had seen Robbie and Tobby take the tent down a thousand times before. For them it was not that interesting at all. Sportacus dropped down into the grass beside them. For the third time today, something occurred to him that should have already, and he found himself wondering whether the kids knew what their caretakers were. He caught Stephanie's attention, and she rolled over onto her back to look at him upside down.

“So how does this work, anyway? Why don't you all have to help with the tent?”

“Robbie has a special device for it,” she said, folding her arms on her front. “That way just he and Tobby can take it down and put it up without needing us to get involved.”

“That's awfully clever,” he said, looking over at them. There was a slight haze over both men- a misdirect? Maybe that's why the kids weren't paying any attention.

Whatever it was, it wasn't meant to work on elves, or it couldn't. He watched, fascinated, while Robbie and Tobby wove their magic across the tent, and then- quite suddenly-

-it was _gone_. All that remained where the tent had been was a cloud of dissipating mist and a pile of fabric about the size of a mattress. Robbie snapped his fingers. It vanished as well.

Sportacus _stared_.

And then jumped to his feet and shot off across the yard like a bullet when Robbie suddenly dropped to one knee, hunched over and breathing heavily.

“Robbie, are you okay?” He squatted in front of him, holding out one hand for Robbie to steady himself. Robbie glared.

“Of _course_ you saw that.” He knocked Sportacus's hand away. “I'm _fine_. That's just a lot more magic than I'm used to using in one go.” He pulled himself to his feet slowly, creaking a little, but after some slight swaying seemed to steady himself. “You should be _happy_. I'll probably have to _sleep_ tonight.”

Sportacus sighed, and scrubbed his hands down his face in a silent plea for patience.

“Okay, Robbie,” he said, finally. “But where did the tent go?”

“To the fairgrounds. We'll put it back up tomorrow, and then run rehearsals there until opening night. In the _meantime_ -” He turned toward the kids and let out a short, sharp whistle. They came over to join them. “I need you guys to start getting packed. We're heading out once we're done with our shows here and I don't want to hear that any of you have left something essential behind because you tried waiting till the last minute. We've got a _lot_ of work to do this week, you won't have much time to worry about packing.” There was a long pause, wherein the kids didn't move, and then he made shooing motions. “Go on!”

They all hurried up to the house, and as soon as Sportacus and Robbie were the only ones present Robbie sagged again. Sportacus gave a yelp and caught him, letting Robbie lean against him. Robbie pressed his hand to his forehead.

“I'll be fine,” he said quickly, before Sportacus could ask again. “Magic takes a lot out of me. I'm only _part_ Fae, you know.”

“How far back does your bloodline start?”

“My great-grandfather." He took a deep breath, and straightened up, but Sportacus didn't move his hand from Robbie's waist. “But the magic in our line tends to pick and choose who it goes to. It went to my grandmother, but neither of her brothers, and then it went to her eldest son and her daughter, but not my father. And none of his cousins.”

“You have very strong magic for someone who's only one eighth Fae,” Sportacus said. “I know you said you were only Fae-ish but I thought you'd be at least half.”

At that, Robbie just snorted. “It's not _that_ strong.”

“It's strong enough to keep you alive and sane,” Sportacus pointed out. “Who knows what you could do with it if you weren't redirecting most of it to your health?”

Robbie gave him a bewildered look. “What are you on about?”

“Robbie, you go days without sleeping and you live off of cake.”

“Insomnia is a _thing_ , Sportakook.”

“Yes! And it has very detrimental effects on the body, which you should have been feeling ages ago!” Sportacus gave Robbie a very serious look. “At this point, the _only_ thing keeping you together is your magic. That's why using it wears you out so much, because there's not as much left to hold you together. That's why you sleep for so long when you finally do, because your body needs to regenerate that magic. That's why you never quite feel rested, because you don't sleep long enough for your body to heal.”

Robbie was silent, and then suddenly he pulled away from Sportacus, intent on storming off again. “I don't have _time_ for any of that,” he said.

Sportacus was ready this time. He grabbed Robbie's arm, not letting him get away, and spun him around so that he was forced to look at Sportacus.

“Yes, you said. _Your kids need you_. You keep _saying_ that.” He took a deep breath, and steeled himself for Robbie's reaction. “So tell me what happens to your _kids_ when even your magic can't keep you together and you can't take care of them anymore?”

-/-

Stephanie was packing. She wasn't about to leave things till the last minute and forget something essential.

Trixie wasn't packing, because she had so little to begin with that it would take her no time at all to shove everything she owned into two backpacks and be done with it.

And Ella was making a pass at packing, but she kept stopping to chatter at the other two girls, in a rare talkative mood.

She was in the middle of repeating a joke Pixel had told her ages ago, when suddenly she gave a soundless shout and dropped, hitting the floor and hunched over, curling into herself. Stephanie and Trixie were at her side in a moment, trying to calm her enough she could tell them what was wrong. Blinking back pained tears, she brought one hand up and made a single motion before curling over herself again.

_Robbie_ . Stephanie and Trixie held a wordless conversation over her back, and Trixie hopped to her feet. “You stay with her,” she said. “I'll go get Robbie.”

-/-

Robbie felt like he'd been punched. Fury surged through him. He realized his hand was clenched at his side, and tried to unclench it, only to have it ball up again just as soon as he did.

“You know I'm right,” Sportacus said. His voice was calm, carefully so. He still had Robbie's hand in his; he let it go slowly, and folded his arms. “I'm trying to _help_. I don't want to see them hurt- and they will be, if you keep up like this. I don't want to see _you_ hurt, either. I know you don't like me, or trust me, but I promise you- I _swear_ \- that I am only trying to help.” 

There was a slight weight to the air at his words, and Robbie snapped out of his shocked, angry stupor. He blinked. “Did you just-?”

“I have to get you to listen _somehow_.” Sportacus gave him a tiny smile. “You're dedicated. You work hard. You care about your family. But you have to take care of yourself, too. If not for you, then so you can keep taking care of them.”

He fell silent, then. Waiting. Robbie opened and closed his mouth, but he couldn't think what to say. He  _knew_ Sportacus was right- but that didn't mean he could just snap his fingers and fix everything. Was that what Sportacus was expecting? That Robbie could make his problems vanish as easily as he did the tent? He narrowed his eyes, furrowed his brow. What did Sportacus know, anyway? He'd clearly never dealt with any of the situations Robbie was.

All the same-

“ _Robbie_!”

They both whipped around at the frantic call from Trixie, dashing out across the yard to them. She skidded to a stop in front of them and leaned on her knees, breathing heavily. “It's Ella! We were- were packing, and she- she just-  _collapsed_ ! She looked like- like she was in a- lot of pain! You have to come- quickly!”

She had barely gotten the words out that both men were dashing up to the house, Robbie just ahead of Sportacus. He took the stairs two at a time, stumbled at the top, and kept running to the girls' room.

Stephanie had managed to get Ella onto her bed, and she was curled on her side, arms wrapped around her middle, hands reaching for her back. Robbie surveyed the situation, taking in everything in the moment, and nodded.

“Get her on her front,” he ordered Stephanie, “and then go find Tobby, I need him.”

Stephanie looked frantic, but she struggled to help Ella unfold and roll over. It wasn't easy; Ella's instinct was to curl up as much as possible. Once she had her lying flat, she pressed a kiss to the side of Ella's head, murmured a soft reassurance, and hurried out the room. As soon as she was gone Robbie crossed the room in two short strides and knelt at her side. He put a hand on the middle of her back, spread wide, and murmured to her.

“Ella, sweetheart, I need you to listen to me. Listen to my voice. Can you do that? Focus on my voice. It doesn't matter what I'm saying, just listen. It's going to be okay, sweetheart, we're going to take care of you, it's going to be okay, I know it hurts- gods do I know- but we'll take care of you. It'll be okay.”

He kept up a litany of this, soothing words interwoven with magic meant to ease her suffering. Sportacus hung back at the door, but as soon as he recognized the intent behind Robbie's words he started humming softly, layering his sleep-song under Robbie's reassurances. He didn't make it strong enough to put her to sleep, but between his and Robbie's magic Ella had soon calmed, her pain dulled somewhat. Robbie's shoulders sagged.

There was a knock at the door, and Tobby entered. He had a few towels thrown over his shoulder, and a bucket of water in his hands.

“Stephanie told me what happened,” he said. “I guessed.”

“It was the magic,” Robbie said quietly. He stood and picked Ella up, careful of her back even as he held her close. She was limp, and there was fear in her eyes, but she stayed fast in the trance Robbie had put her in. “Too much magic in the air- well, better to have triggered it now than halfway through the tour, I guess.”

While he spoke, Tobby had ripped the bedcovers from Ella's bed and was laying the towels down. Robbie turned to Sportacus.

“You don't have to stay for this. It can get- gruesome.”

“What's happening to her?”

“Wings are coming in,” Tobby said. He'd finished with the towels, and now he helped Robbie lay Ella back down. Robbie squatted and turned her head to him.

“Ella, my dear, we need to get your jacket off and then we're going to do what we can to pull your wings out. It's going- to- it's going to _hurt_. I can take away some of the pain, but not all of it. I need you to be brave for me. Can you do that?”

She didn't give any response that Sportacus could see, but after a long pause Robbie nodded at Tobby, who reached over and unzipped the back of Ella's purple coat, pulling it open and pushing her shirt up her back to reveal two angry red welts under her shoulder blades, moving down to the small of her back. Sportacus moved closer.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

Robbie spared him a glance, and turned back to Ella. “That- song-spell you were humming.” He hesitated, and then shook his head. “Will that help ease her suffering?”

“It's a sleep-song,” Sportacus said. “It's meant to make her sleep, but I can use it to keep her calm, too. If you want.” He bit his lip. He'd seen the sharp look Robbie had sent him at the mention of the word sleep, and he had a feeling he and Robbie had another argument in their future.

But that was for later. For now, Robbie nodded, and moved to sit on the bed beside Ella. Sportacus knelt beside her, and took her outstretched hand in his own. On the other side of the bed, Tobby did the same, stroking her hand and murmuring his own soothing monologue.

“Last chance to back out, Sportacus,” Robbie said, and rested a hand on Ella's back, in between the two welts. Sportacus gave him a hard look, and turned his attention to Ella, humming the sleep-song and layering it with another, one meant to pull tension from the room. Hopefully that would help Robbie focus, if he wasn't worrying so much.

It was not a pleasant sight. Sportacus kept his eyes locked on Ella's rather than watch, but even so he could see in his periphery, the way Robbie's magic fed into the welts, making them shift and swell and shake until finally they burst open, blood running freely where they skin had split. Ella's hand tightened around Sportacus's; she was trembling, and biting down on her lip, but there was determination in her eyes all the same. He stroked her hand with his free one, the best he could do to tell her how proud he was of her.

Robbie halted his magic once the skin burst and took a few deep breaths, then he started again, this time feeding healing magic into her instead. The magic found the split skin and knit it back together, until it stopped bleeding. It wasn't healed completely, but it was getting there, and she wasn't bleeding anymore. Robbie slumped over. There were dark circles under his eyes and his sweat plastered to his forehead, but he seemed satisfied.

“It's done,” he said, listing slightly to one side. “Her body will have to do the rest. At least she's past the worst of it.”

“At least you won't have to worry so much about her falling once they finish growing,” Tobby said, and Robbie let out a harsh bark of laughter that seemed to imply the opposite. Tobby reached for the bucket of water and took out a rag. “Why don't you go get some rest? I'll get Ella cleaned up and put her to bed.”

“I-” Robbie hesitated, and blinked blearily at his brother. He seemed to be having trouble focusing. “She needs-” He broke off again, looking a little confused at how slurred his words had come out. “Your magic...”

He didn't get any farther. His eyes fell shut and he slid to one side, tumbling off of the bed and right into Sportacus's arms. Sportacus stood, still cradling Robbie in a way he was getting eerily accustomed to.

“I'll put him to bed,” he said. “And I'll make sure he stays there.”

“Good. Tie him down if you have to.” Tobby sighed, and gave Sportacus a weary look. “Thanks,” he added. “For looking after Robbie, I mean. I don't know where you came from or why, but I'm glad you're here. For Robbie's sake.”

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everything that Sportacus realizes in this chapter that he should have thought of earlier is a plothole that I didn't spot until the second act had started, and had to figure out.
> 
> We'll get some answers about Ella- and some Fae worldbuilding- in the next chapter.
> 
> I might as well redo the summary of this as "Sportacus tries really hard to make Robbie sleep and also there's a circus or something". The circus will play a much bigger role in Act III, though, once they actually start traveling and performing.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robbie has a breakthrough. And a breakdown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Depending on pacing, there's one-two chapters left on Act II after this one. After that we can get to the CIRCUS part o the CIRCUS au. Finally.

-/-

Robbie woke to sunlight. It was a situation he was getting to be unpleasantly familiar with- waking up in general was, for that matter.

He took a moment to orient himself- waking was always a disorienting process- and then remembered everything. Ella. Sportacus. Tobby. He made to sit up, and suddenly a pair of strong hands on his shoulders pushed him back down. He blinked, startled. Sportacus was leaning over him, close enough that all Robbie could see was that stupid mustache and those blue, blue eyes.

“Why do I keep waking up in your hammock?”

Sportacus leaned back a little, putting some distance between them, but didn't let go of Robbie. “I thought sleeping under the stars might help. It always does for me, when I use too much magic in one go.”

Robbie frowned, and decided not to touch on that. He looked instead at Sportacus's hands on his shoulders. “Are you going to get off of me?”

“Only once I'm sure you won't keep trying to get up,” Sportacus said. “You need to rest. Yesterday took a _lot_ out of you.”

“Yester-!” Robbie tried again to sit up, but Sportacus had him pinned pretty neatly. He struggled. “ _Yesterday_?! I can't stay out here, I need to-”

“To _rest,_ ” Sportacus repeated firmly. “You were completely drained. If you try to get up now you're going to hurt yourself.”

Robbie struggled, but he didn't have much energy for a fight in him. After only a moment, he stilled, lying limply under Sportacus's hands. His breathing was coming heavily. “Ella?” he demanded.

“She slept till morning,” Sportacus said. “She woke up to get something to eat, and she's weak but she seems otherwise okay. Tobby is taking care of her.”

“He needs-”

“ _He_ got his rest.” Sportacus loosened his grip somewhat, but Robbie stayed where he was. “Once he had Ella taken care of he went to get some sleep. He was feeling better this morning. He doesn't have as much magic as you, and he's not as dependent on what he has, so he didn't need as much rest as you.”

“Where is everyone now? They can't do rehearsals without the tent and equipment being set up. Opening night is a _week away_ , we don't have much _time_ -” He tried to sit up again, only to have Sportacus push him back down once more.

“They're in town. They went to hand out flyers and- what was it Jives said? 'Get everyone hype for the show'. Tobby and Ella are upstairs resting. Last time I checked on them Tobby was reading to Ella.”

Robbie stopped trying to sit up and slumped a little. He was running out of excuses for why he couldn't take the day off, but he still felt like he needed to get up, that he needed to be _working_. That he was just playing right into Rikki's hand. He reached up and scrubbed one hand down his face impatiently.

“So you're planning to just sit here all day and hold me down to make sure I rest?”

“If I have to.” Sportacus let go of him and sat down on the hammock beside him, resting his hand on Robbie's hip instead. It was a strangely comforting weight.

“Can I at least _sit up_?”

“Sure, but if you try to run away I'm tackling you.”

“I just bet you will, too.” There was much shifting and the hammock swung wildly while they resituated themselves, and then they were sitting facing each other, Robbie's legs folded haphazardly in front of him. Robbie sighed. “You're sure Ella is okay? When mine-” He broke off, and blushed. Ducked his head and looked away. “It's not- an easy thing to recover from.”

“I can imagine not.” Sportacus rested his hand on Robbie's knee, gave it a reassuring squeeze. “But she seems fine. A little scared, a little weak, a little sore- but no more than expected, and Tobby has reassured me that she's handling everything quite well.” He paused, and then, “I... hadn't realized Ella was Fae too.”

“You can't tell she's a Rotten?”

“It's never come up! Besides, humans mostly look the same to me.”

“Wow. I mean, that's- wow.”

Sportacus laughed. “I haven't spent enough time with humans to be able to tell similar ones apart on sight. And certainly not enough to be able to determine which ones are related. So Ella is...?”

“My niece. Her m- her mother- she was my sister. She was in the middle, right between Flobby and Bobby.”

Sportacus looked away. “I'm sorry,” he said quietly. Robbie shrugged.

There was a long silence. Sportacus kept the hammock rocking slowly, gently, with one foot. Robbie was considering laying back down; the world was taking on a weird tint, but he didn't want to admit to Sportacus just yet that he was right about Robbie needing to take the day off. He sighed.

“You've been using magic to get me to sleep,” he said, leveling a glare at Sportacus, who at least had the decency to look embarrassed.

“It was the only thing I could think of,” he admitted. “I was afraid if you didn't get some rest soon- that-”

“You used _magic_ on me,” he repeated.

“I had to do _something_!”

“ _No you didn't!_ ” Robbie flopped back, suddenly feeling a little dizzy. He gave that a moment to pass and pushed on. “You were brought here to help _the circus_ , not to be my personal sleep aid!”

“Yes, and how much _help_ do you think I can be to a circus whose ringmaster is out of commission?”

Robbie said nothing, and threw his arm over his eyes. Sportacus sighed, and reached over to rest his hand on Robbie's arm. He didn't pull it away, instead rubbing circles onto Robbie's wrist with his thumb.

“Robbie- I know you don't want to hear any of this. But please, just listen? If you keep up like this, you're going to get yourself killed. I-” He sighed, and pulled his hand away. “I shouldn't have used magic on you. I'm sorry. I- I'm just scared. For you, for your family... Your kids can't really afford to lose another parent. The circus can't afford to lose _you_.”

He didn't say anything after that, giving Robbie time to process everything he'd said. Eventually, Robbie lowered his arm and sat up, giving Sportacus a hard look.

“I don't trust you,” he said slowly. Sportacus nodded. He seemed to understand that Robbie was going somewhere with this, and was smart enough to keep his mouth shut. “I know the stories about elves, and the fact that my kids all adore you makes me... uneasy. The fact that you were so willing to use magic on me once you'd decided what was best for me doesn't _help_ your case at all.”

Sportacus nodded again. “That's... fair.”

“But last night-” Robbie broke off again and threw his arm over his eyes again, the events all playing in his head in a rushed blur. He shook his head, dissipating the images. “Last night, you _swore_ you were only trying to help.”

“I needed to make you understand that I meant it,” Sportacus said. “You know I- I couldn't have said that if it wasn't true. Not like that.”

“Yes, I know.” He sat up again, noticed that Sportacus had a hand resting on his leg. “I- want you to swear something to me. I want you to swear that you don't mean my family any harm.”

Another pause. Sportacus's lips moved, running the words through his mind for a moment. He nodded, and caught Robbie's eyes with his own. “I swear that I am only here to help, and that I mean no harm to you or anyone else in your circus, family or otherwise.”

There was that weight, the feeling of the air pressing around them. Robbie let out a slow breath. “Okay,” he said quietly, and lay back again. “Okay.”

Robbie stretched his legs out straight, and Sportacus moved his hand to rest on Robbie's hip again. His shirt had ridden up, and Sportacus's thumb was pressed against his bare skin. He shuddered slightly.

“You keep touching me.”

“I'm a tactile person. Does it bother you? I can stop.”

Robbie had a quick internal battle, and the part of him that wasn't used to such comforts shoved his pride into a box and locked it. “No, it's- nice.”

Sportacus's face softened, and he leaned over so that he was looking into Robbie's eyes. “Get some rest, Robbie. I'll stay here and watch over you.”

Robbie sighed. He really was very tired.

-/-

Trixie and Stephanie had taken the area near the park to hand out fliers and put out word about their opening night approaching. Their heart wasn't in it, though. They were worried about Ella.

Stephanie came to a halt at the edge of the park. There wasn't anyone around, and they still had half their fliers.

“Hey Trixie?”

“Yeah?”

“Do-” She hesitated. “Do you think Tobby was telling the truth about Ella? That she just pulled a muscle?”

Trixie snorted. “Of course he wasn't.”

“Why would he lie to us about something like that, though?”

“Because grown-ups _always_ lie to kids. All the time.” She sneered. “He'd _probably_ say he was trying to protect us, though. Whatever's wrong with Ella must be pretty bad.”

Stephanie frowned, and shifted uncomfortably. “I don't think he's the sort to lie...”

“That's cause you're sheltered. Trust me, Pinky, the world is full of adults who lie and break their promises and ignore you and...” She trailed off, and hugged herself. Stephanie wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and Trixie leaned into her side. “Adults are awful, Pinky. Just cause we managed to get a few good ones- but even they can't be bothered to tell us the truth.”

“I'm sure they have a good reason for it,” Stephanie assured her. “Maybe they don't want to tell us until they know it'll be okay.”

“Or maybe they just don't think we can handle it.” Trixie sighed. “Come on, let's go. We gotta hand these fliers out.”

-/-

They were nearly out of fliers when they spotted Milford, pruning his garden. He stood up straight when he saw them, and waved.

“Hello, girls!” he said. “How _good_ to see you! Handing out fliers? Oh my, it's really getting close to opening night, isn't it?”

“It is, Uncle,” Stephanie said. “Would you like one of the fliers? I know you like to collect them.”

“Oh, yes, yes!” He took the flier carefully. “Say, why don't you girls take a break and come in for some lemonade?”

He led them inside and gave them lemonade, and while they sipped at it he got a large album off of the shelf. They recognized it; it was where he kept all of their fliers. Once the newest one had been tucked away, he returned the album to the shelf, and then paused.

“Hmm,” he said. “Would you girls like to see some pictures from our first year? I found an old album when I was going through storage, and I think you might enjoy seeing some of it.”

“Sure, Uncle,” Stephanie said, sitting up a little straighter. Trixie shrugged, and he brought the album over. They flipped it open while he went to tidying the room idly.

A lot of the pictures they had already seen- Stephanie even had some in her own photo album, the one her mother had been making before her death- but there were some new ones. She traced her fingers over a picture of her parents in full costume, her father holding her mother up in the air, her mother balanced on his hand on one foot. She'd never seen that one before.

One new one was a group picture in front of the tent- not their tent, but a similar one. Stephanie looked over all the faces. She knew most of the people in it; the original crew had stayed the longest of anyone, and so she had grown up with them around. But some of the figures were unfamiliar to her. She honed in on one, a long, thin man in a rainbow wig and an apron.

He'd moved just as the picture was being taken, and so he was slightly blurred, but there was something familiar about him all the same. She waved her uncle over and pointed at the man in the picture.

“Who is this, Uncle?”

“Hm?” Milford leaned over her. “Oh, that's Mr. Can. He ran our concessions the first two years, but there was a falling out, I believe, and Robbie put Pablo over concessions instead, so Dan left.”

“What did they fall out about?” Trixie asked, leaning over Stephanie to look at the picture too. She loved any sign of drama.

“I'm not sure,” he admitted. “Robbie didn't hire me as manager until a few years later, when admin got to be too much for him to handle alone. I was just a groupie at the time, I only know what I do know about it because Milton told me. But he didn't like Mr. Can very much, you know. I have a feeling he wasn't a very nice person.”

“He looks a little scary,” Trixie admitted, while Stephanie continued to stare at the picture. _Why_ did he look so _familiar_? She tried to remember if he'd visited them at some point, but she couldn't remember anything like that happening. Most of the people who visited them later were people who had left on good terms, either looking for a career change or taking positions in other circuses. They had always been introduced to her with fondness, and they had all been friendly and genial. It didn't sound like this _Dan Can_ would have been any of those things.

Stephanie tore her eyes away from the blurry image, and decided to put it from her mind. Instead she carefully slid the picture of her parents out of the sleeve and held it up.

“Uncle, may I make a copy of this picture? I'd like to put it in my photo album.”

“Of course you may! Come on, I'll help you get the photocopier going.”

-/-

Sportacus waited with Robbie awhile after he finally went back to sleep. It was so nice seeing him resting for once, and willingly even more, and Sportacus just felt the need to. To _watch over_ him. To make sure he came to no harm.

And maybe now that Robbie _knew_ Sportacus wasn't going to hurt his family, maybe they could start working on getting Robbie to _trust_ him. Maybe they could start becoming _friends_.

Friends with Robbie. The thought made Sportacus wiggle excitedly.

-/-

When Robbie woke up again, night was falling, and Sportacus was curled up asleep on the hammock beside him. There was space between them, a few inches of it, but Sportacus was still such a presence that there didn't seem to be any at all. Robbie sat up slowly, and watched him for a long moment. Had Sportacus been there all day, watching over him?

He frowned, and shook his head. His chest hurt, a solid kind of ache that he suspected had nothing to do with his current physical state.

Robbie's stomach growled. Beside him, Sportacus murmured something about apples, but didn't stir. Robbie suppressed a smile. Apples he refused to eat, but maybe- well, Pablo had made banana bread. And Robbie was pretty sure they had cream cheese.

He gave Sportacus another glance, and then vanished in a puff of mist. He reappeared on his feet beside the hammock, and leaned on his knees. He must not have recovered, then- a simple teleportation like that one wasn't exactly _complicated_ , for it to leave him so winded meant he was drawing on very small reserves.

At least he hadn't woken Sportacus trying to flop out of the hammock, he decided, as he headed up to the house. He'd have to check on Ella while he was inside, he couldn't leave her to deal with this on her own. She was probably hurting, he'd have to do another numbing spell, and then there was the ointment that would keep the skin loose and malleable, so that it didn't tear once the actual wings started to emerge from the two sleeves her body had created for them.

He bypassed the kitchen- food could wait- and headed up the stairs to the girls' room. Ella was up there, hunched over beside Tobby, who had one hand resting on her back between the wing-slits. Robbie could see the tendrils of magic spreading from his hand across Ella's back, weaving into the slits and soothing them. Robbie leaned against the doorjamb, arms folded, as an entirely unwelcome thought crossed his mind.

When had Tobby _grown up_?

Tobby only acknowledged Robbie's presence once he'd spread the soothing magic into Ella's back.

“Hey,” he said, treating Robbie to that angelic smile of his. “How are you feeling?”

Dazed. Confused. Hit smack dab with the realization that my baby brother is an adult now. Lost. Adrift. “Hungry.”

Tobby laughed. “Ella and I were just going to get something to eat,” he said. “Bobby and Flobby took the other kids out to see a movie, we figured the quiet would be best for you.”

Robbie frowned. A thought was coming together in his head, tenuous and fragile, falling apart every time he tried to grasp it.

“Tobby- I-” He broke off, and looked over at Ella, who treated him to a smile of her own. “I'm not- sure- why-”

He stuttered to a stop. How to put what he was feeling into words? He didn't even know what he felt himself.

Tobby seemed to understand. He crossed the room and wrapped his arms around his brother, squeezing him tight. “You don't have to do everything by yourself, Robbie,” he said quietly. “We're here for you, you're allowed to let us take care of you too.”

There was a thump against his side and he looked down to see Ella smiling up at him, arms around his waist. He reached down to ruffle her hair gently.

“I don't deserve any of you,” he said quietly.

“Too bad.”

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Though I didn't know the exact details of how it would happen, I've had the basic skeleton of this scene- Robbie realizing his brothers aren't kids anymore, and Tobby inviting some of the burden onto their shoulders- since halfway through Act I. While Sportacus has been trying to take some of Robbie's burdens, I felt it would mean more coming from the people he's been taking care of for most of his life.
> 
> As for the Rotten siblings, birth order goes Robbie, Flobby, Nobby, Bobby, and Tobby. I don't know the age range because I'm still working on nailing down the timeline.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything's out in the open now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of Act II! I was going to have Act II end before opening night, but with what I have planned, this feels more like an appropriate ending. Next chapter will be a short intermission scene (possibly two, I have two that I want to write so we'll see which turns out) and then we'll pick up with Act III.
> 
> Editing note: Due to my attempts to nail down a timeline, I have made a very small edit to chapter five. In the scene where Ella tells Stephanie "We're ten", she now says "we're kids" instead. I haven't quite decided on what I'm retconning their ages to, but I do know that they're no longer the same age (Stephanie is older, and the second oldest kid tied with Pixel.)

-/-

The kids rarely got a chance to go to the movies, since they were always so busy, so it was a nice treat for them. All the same, Stephanie hugged herself while they stood in line, unable to keep from worrying. Ella had seemed much better when they'd gotten home, but she'd still seemed weak. This wasn't a pulled muscle- Stephanie had pulled muscles before, it was a natural part of their lifestyle. This wasn't what they looked like.

There was also Robbie. He'd been sleeping more lately, but something seemed... off.

“Well! What's this?”

Stephanie was pulled from her reverie by the familiar, and now-hated, voice of Mr. Rikur approaching. He beamed at them and leaned on his cane, eyes sweeping the group.

“Come to see a movie? But...” He made a show of looking over the whole group again. “Shouldn't there be more of you? I thought Robbie had _seven_ kids and _three_ brothers.”

“Hi, Wikki,” Bobby said. “Ella and Wobbie aren't feeling great. Tobby stayed home to take care of them and me and Flobby brought the kids to the movies to give them some peace and quiet for a little while.”

Rikki adopted a look of sympathy. “Nothing _serious_ , I hope? Overwork, no doubt, Robbie _does_ work so _hard_ , doesn't he? But poor Ella! And only a week before opening night, too. Not the best time to lose your headlining act.”

“Ella will be _fine_ ,” Stephanie snapped out suddenly, not liking the glint in Rikki's eyes. Rikki turned his attention to her, and she didn't let herself quell under his gaze. “And so will Robbie. You'll see. We'll open up on Saturday and it'll be the best show we've done yet.”

“Oh my, such _confidence_!” He grinned toothily at her, though she couldn't shake the feeling of bared fangs. He leaned over so they were eye level, and this time Stephanie did take a step back. “I do like to see so much _confidence_ in a young lady such as yourself. It will get you _far_ in this world, you know.”

He stood up, and straightened his coat, turning his attention back to Bobby and effectively dismissing Stephanie from his concern. Stephanie was shaking; she twitched away when Trixie grabbed her arm.

“You okay, Pinky?”

Stephanie snapped her attention to Trixie, and then nodded. “Yes, I'm fine. I'm just worried. About Robbie and Ella.”

Trixie squinted at her, leaning close to her personal space. “You're lying,” she said. “Something's wrong and you're lying about it and if you don't tell me what's going on right _now_ I'm going to scream and scream and scream and then you'll have to tell everyone.”

“You wouldn't.”

Trixie glared, and then opened her mouth and took in a deep breath. Stephanie smashed a hand over her mouth.

“Okay,” she said hastily. “I'll- I'll tell you. But not here. We can got to the bathroom once we get into the theatre and I'll tell you then. Okay?”

Trixie paused, then nodded. Stephanie lowered her hand, and Trixie folded her arms.

“Swear you'll tell me?”

“Swear it. Just not here.”

-/-

Once Bobby had paid for everyone's tickets and was in line for snacks, Stephanie told him she and Trixie were going to the bathroom and then the two disappeared around the corner. Once inside, Stephanie checked under the stalls to make sure they were alone, then turned to Trixie. Trixie had her arms folded, unimpressed.

“Okay, Pinky, we're alone. What gives?”

Stephanie chewed her lip. “It's about Mr. Rikur,” she said hesitantly. Trixie bristled immediately.

“Has he hurt you? If he's hurt you I swear I'll climb all the way up there and punch him in his _godsdamn_ _ **throat**_.”

“No! _Trixie_. He hasn't hurt me, he's just- _listen_. You know that he's given the circus a lot of money, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well now he's asking for that money _back_. And if Robbie can't pay him by the end of the season, he's going to put us all to work in his _factory!_ ”

“Oh.” Trixie looked stunned. “How- how much money do we owe him?”

“I don't know. Robbie said it was a _lot_ though.”

“Well why didn't he tell _us_? And why do _you_ know?”

“I overheard him talking to Pablo. And he didn't want me to. He was afraid that if you all knew it would scare you.”

Trixie looked furious at that. “Our livelihood is at stake and so is our family and he has the nerve to keep that hidden from us? To _protect_ us? No way!”

“Trixie!” Stephanie grabbed Trixie's shoulders. “Please calm down. He wasn't trying to hurt us. He's just scared. And you know he thinks he has to do everything on his own.”

Trixie huffed, and kicked irritably at the wall. “So is this why you were going on about Sportacus being the answer to our problems?”

“Yeah.”

“Well I hate to _break_ it to you, but one act does not make a circus. We're as screwed as before.” She kicked the wall again, and then turned to slide down it until she was sat on the floor. Stephanie said beside her and put an arm around her shoulders.

“Don't be like that. We'll figure something out. We'll manage. There's no way Robbie will actually let us go to work in a factory.”

“All right for you to say,” Trixie said darkly. “You've got your uncle, if everything falls apart you can just go with him. Where are the rest of us going to go? Huh?”

“I'm sure Robbie will find somewhere you'll be safe. Don't worry so much. Just focus on making the show as good as we can. We'll show that Rikki Rikur that we can't be pushed around like this.”

Trixie snorted in disbelief, but leaned her head on Stephanie's shoulder anyway. Stephanie gave her a squeeze.

“Stephanie? Trixie?” There was a call from outside; it sounded like Stingy. “Bobby sent me to check on you. Is everything okay? We're going into the theatre now. Guys? I'm coming in!”

The door swung open, and Stingy came in, hand up over his eyes for a moment. When he lowered it, he spotted them on the floor. They climbed to their feet.

“What are you doing down _there_? There're seats in the theatre, they're much more comfortable.”

“We had to talk about something,” Stephanie said, but Trixie pushed her back a little, took a step forward.

“Put the word out to the boys,” she said. “We're having a kids meeting tonight, after the uncles go to bed. Our room. We have to talk.”

“Oh.” Stingy looked startled. “Okay. What's this about?”

“We'll tell you tonight, I don't wanna explain it to everyone over and over again.”

“Okay. Can we go watch the movie now?”

They nodded, and Stephanie helped Trixie to her feet.

“Are you sure we should tell everyone else?” she asked. Trixie nodded.

“Absolutely. How are we gonna save our circus if we don't all know we need to?” She halted Stephanie and gave her a serious look. “I know you think keeping us in the dark is the best, but it's better if we all know. Then we can work together to fix things. Besides, don't you feel relieved that you aren't holding it all in anymore?”

“I guess..”

“Trust me, Pinky, this is for the best. Besides, it's not fair to keep secrets from people, not when they involve them.”

-/-

Ella was lying on her bed with some crayons and drawing paper when everyone got home. She greeted Stephanie and Trixie when they came into their room, but refused to answer any of their questions about what was wrong with her. She did assure them she was feeling better, though, and that Robbie was too, so at least there was that.

“We're having a kids' meeting tonight,” Stephanie said. “Are you going to be up for it?”

Ella nodded, and signed a question.

“Not till the meeting,” Trixie repeated. “I'm not explaining myself seventy times.”

-to an eyeroll from the other two.

“But _listen_ ,” she went on. “Are you _sure_ you're okay? You really scared us.”

Ella nodded, but more hesitant, and then she shook her head. After a moment, she signed, slowly, _At the meeting_. Stephanie and Trixie both nodded.

“Looks like we've got a lot to talk about, then.”

-/-

An hour later, the seven children were packed into the girls' room, all eyes on Stephanie while she filled them in on everything that she had overheard, and that Robbie had told her. When she'd finished, their reactions were a mix: they were all horrified, but Ziggy wasn't sure they should have been told, and Jives agreed that Robbie was right to keep it from them.

“The success of the circus depends on us being able to perform,” he said. “If we're gonna get up there and be as rad as we can, we can't have any pressure. If we know the whole thing depends on us- what then?”

“Who says the pressure will be bad for us?” Trixie demanded. “Maybe it'll push us to do even better!”

“You can't _know that_ , Trixie! What if you choke cause you know how belly-up everything can go if you do? Performing when you're in danger can mess you up.”

“Oh, what would _you_ know about performing with danger? All you do is juggle some colored balls! I know _all about_ dangerous, and let me tell you, it's the biggest thrill! You just don't know what you're talking about.”

Jives looked hurt, and folded his arms. “You don't have to be on the attack at every second, Trixie. This is a meeting, not an argument. Control yourself.”

Trixie growled irritably, and folded her own arms. “I'll show you control,” she said. Jives sighed.

“Well, we all know now,” he said. “So we've gotta totally come up with some ways to save our circus. Being rad will only carry us so far.”

“We could try begging for the money,” Trixie said. When they all stared at her, she shrugged. “Hey, wouldn't be my first time. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. We just put Ziggy in some cruddy clothes and stick him out in the street, he asks people for money and they'll fall all over him. He's small and cute, they'll practically throw their money at him.”

“We are not begging,” Stephanie said. “We just- maybe if we try harder to drum up views? Maybe we could do fund-raisers?”

“When will we have the _time_?”

“I don't know!” Stephanie threw her arms up. “I don't have all the answers, Trixie! At least I'm _trying_ , instead of sitting here acting like the world is over!”

“Yeah? That's cause you're not looking at a factory or an orphanage in your immediate future!”

Stephanie stomped her foot. “Do you _really_ think _any_ of us is going to end up in either of those places? You really think Robbie would let that happen? The uncles, or Uncle Milford? Bessie? Sportacus? You think they care so little that they'd dump you as soon as it got inconvenient?”

“Well it wouldn't be the first time!”

They were toe to toe, now, both red in the face and shaking. Trixie's hands were in fists at her side. Stephanie looked like she was about to cry. The others were hovering around, all upset, but not sure what to do. Usually when Stephanie and Trixie fought, they said their piece and stormed off to cool down, and then talked and hugged and were back to being friends. That didn't feel like an option right now.

There was thumping on the stairs, and then a knock at the door before it opened, and Robbie was there. He looked around.

“I heard yelling,” he said. “What's going on?”

Six guilty pairs of eyes were suddenly unable to look at him, but Trixie mustered herself and gave him a defiant look.

“Pinky told us about what Mr. Rikur is doing. She told us everything.”

Robbie looked at Stephanie, who hugged herself and looked at the ground rather than him. He sighed.

“All right. You all know now. Why were you shouting?”

“Trixie thinks you're gonna dump us all if everything goes wrong,” Stephanie said.

“Wh- nooo, no no no.” Robbie strode over to Trixie and knelt in front of her, taking her shoulders so she would have to face him. “Trixie, _no_ , I would _never-_ yes, okay, there's a chance I'll have to- to send you away, to keep you _safe_ , but I would- I would _never_ leave you all unless I absolutely, never had another choice.”

Trixie finally dropped her gaze, staring at the floor, her lip wobbling as she tried to stay tough. Robbie pulled her to him, enveloping her in long arms. She buried her face in his shoulder and sniffled a little; he just held her closer.

“I'm not going to dump you guys- _any_ of you,” he added, looking around at the others. “You're _mine_ , and if Rikki thinks he's getting his hands on _any_ of you- if he thinks he can _hurt_ you-” He trailed off, and held Trixie at arm's length, giving her a stern look. “I promise you, I will do _everything_ in my power to keep you all safe. I swore it to each and every one of you when I took you in, and I'll swear it again now. No one is hurting _any_ of you as long as _I_ have the power to stop them.”

There was silence. The room felt- weird. Cold, for just a moment. They all shivered slightly, but it passed before they could say anything. Robbie took a deep breath, and let it out slowly.

“Why don't you all go back to bed? We've got a long day ahead of us, you should be rested up.”

“Are you going to sleep?” Stephanie asked. “You need rest, too.”

“I-” He hesitated. “I'm going to lie down. I don't know if I'll sleep.”

-/-

“Wake up, Elf,” Robbie said. Sportacus grumbled and rolled over.

“Just because _you_ don't sleep...”

Robbie reached over and shook him. “I _said_ , wake _up_.”

“All right, all right.” Sportacus's eyes snapped open and he propped himself up on one arm, rubbing blearily at his eyes. “What is it? Did something happen?”

“Yes and no. Move over, I promised the kids I'd lie down.”

“Okay.” Sportacus yawned and scooted over, giving Robbie space to climb into the hammock and lie down. He lay down beside him, their shoulders pressed against each other while they both looked up at the stars. After a few minutes of silence, Sportacus spoke. “Did you actually have something you wanted to talk about, or did you just want someone else to be awake with you?”

“I was thinking. What if we went directly to the source instead of playing Rikki's game? What if we found some way for him to drop the debt?”

Beside him, Sportacus shifted uncomfortably. “Go on.”

“Well, what if we tried- I don't know- getting some dirt on him, something that would make him unwilling to pursue us for fear of it coming out?”

“Oh. Blackmail.” Sportacus yawned. “Do you know of anything that might do that?”

“I don't know. What if- what if there was something- about the factory? No one actually knows what he makes there, what if- what if it's illegal, or something?”

“Isn't he affiliated with the MayhemTown corrections department? Surely _they_ would know.”

Robbie snorted. “Please, the corrections department in MayhemTown is a _joke_. They'd have agreed to what he said just so he'd take their prisoners off their hands for them and save them having to take care of them.”

Sportacus rolled onto his side so he was facing Robbie, tucking one arm under his head. Robbie mirrored his motion. “So how are you going to find out about the factory?” Sportacus asked. “Did you have anything in mind?”

“Ah- well-” Robbie broke off, and looked away guiltily. “I was hoping... you...”

“Oh.”

“It's just that- none of us- and he seemed _interested_ in you so maybe- if you went there and said you were curious-”

“No, I get it. Okay, I'll do it.”

“You don't have to.”

“But I'm going to.”

“If you don't want to-”

“I'm going to.”

“Sportacus-”

“Robbie!” Sportacus reached up with his other hand and rested it on Robbie's cheek, meeting his eyes with a very serious look. Robbie was suddenly hyper-aware of how close together they were. “I promised I'd help and if that means seeing if I can find some dirt on Rikki at the factory then I will. Okay?”

“Okay. Are you sure though?”

Sportacus just stared. Robbie managed a small smile and resisted the urge to lean into the hand on his cheek. Instead he sat up.

“I should head inside. Try to actually get some rest. Like it or not, I have to put the tent up tomorrow.”

“You can stay out here if you want,” Sportacus said. “Plenty of room for both of us, and you seem to sleep better under the stars.”

The invitation was tempting- very tempting. For one fleeting moment, Robbie considered saying yes, and laying back down and falling asleep to the comfortable presence of the elf beside him.

That alone was enough to get him scrambling to his feet, flailing and falling from the hammock in an undignified heap. Sportacus gave a short yelp and hopped off after him, but the hammock was rocking too wildly and he wound up falling as well, landing on Robbie, who was just trying to get up. Robbie grunted and flattened out, the wind knocked from him. Sportacus was _heavy_.

Sportacus managed to get his feet under him with little effort, steadying himself and reaching down to help Robbie up too. Robbie just lay where he was, sprawled out in the slightly damp grass. He waved one hand absently.

“No no, just leave me down here with the last remains of my dignity. It's fine.”

Sportacus giggled, and squatted down in front of Robbie. “You'll wake up damp and sore if you stay down there. Come on, up you get.” He hooked his hands under Robbie's arms and lifted him, setting him on his feet and moving to brush him off. Robbie batted his hands away.

“All right, stop that! Leave me _some_ of my pride. I'm going inside. If you need me I'll be lying awake in my chair and replaying that scene over and over in my head while sleep evades me.”

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Robbie stop having gay thoughts you're not supposed to start falling till Act III.
> 
> Today I learned that if I give Trixie free reign in a chapter she will eat up half of my word count in half an hour.


	15. Intermission 2: Electric Boogaloo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flashback.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy intermission everyone! We're now through the second leg of the story and are preparing to keep going into the third. It's possible I should have chosen a word besides leg for this metaphor. Maybe the story is a centipede or something.
> 
> Sometime in the next six chapters I'm going to include a line that's going to make you look back on this intermission and go "ohhhhh". At least that's the plan.

Intermission

-/-

Robbie looked up from his book when Tobby stirred. His eyes were burning, his glasses sliding down his nose, and he'd stopped taking in the words on the page an hour ago. He was exhausted, he just wanted to sleep, but he'd told Tobby he'd watch over him and he knew first-hand the pain that came from wings coming in. Knew how much easier it was to sleep knowing someone was watching over him.

Tobby shivered, and Robbie reached over to pull his blanket up before resting a hand on his head, stroking his messy curls gently until he stilled.

He'd gone back to reading, or more specifically staring blearily at the page, when he realized that Tobby was awake and staring at him with sleepy eyes. He carefully tucked a bookmark into the book and set it aside before turning his attention to his brother.

“Yes?”

“My back hurts,” he mumbled. “Why are you still awake?”

“I have some reading to do,” Robbie said. He reached over and rested his hand on Tobby's back, then closed his eyes and concentrated on his magic. There was a soft glow as the magic spread across Tobby's back, and when Robbie pulled his hand away Tobby gave a gentle little sigh. “Go back to sleep, I'll stay here until I finish my reading.”

Tobby yawned. “You should get some rest too. Amma used to say that- that magic was exhausting, and you used so much.”

Robbie stood and leaned over, stroking Tobby's hair back from his head. He pressed a soft kiss to Tobby's temple. “Don't worry about me, Tobby  _ mín _ . I'll rest later, when I know you're safe.”

He stood, and was going to go back to his chair when a small hand grabbed his. He turned to see Tobby sitting up, clutching Robbie's hand in one of his own. Tobby rubbed at his eyes with his free hand.

“If you're staying awake, then so am I.”

“No, you're not.”

Tobby just looked up at him, his face a combination of glare and pout. He folded his arms. “I'll rest later, when I know you're safe,” he parroted.

Robbie stared him down, but finally he sighed. “All right,” he said. “Come here.”

He scooped Tobby up and held him, mindful of his back while he moved to the soft armchair and settled down. Tobby snuggled against him, careful to keep his back to the air. Robbie reached one hand up and stroked his hair.

“We'll both sleep,” Tobby mumbled.

-/-

Tobby woke to a silent house, but it was a peaceful, calm silence. He looked over. Bobby and Flobby were both snoring away in their own beds. He gave them a soft smile, and slipped out of bed to walk the house.

He peeked in on all the kids first, reassuring himself that they were all sleeping peacefully. Ziggy had kicked his covers aside; Tobby slipped inside and covered him up before carrying on his walk. In the girls' room, Ella had woken to get a drink of water. Tobby tucked her back in and sat on the edge of her bed, stroking her hair gently until sleep had reclaimed her.

Once he'd looked in on all of the kids, Tobby made his way downstairs to the den. Robbie was in his fluffy chair, covered up and cuddling a pillow but very clearly awake. Tobby came over and leaned on the back of the chair, looking down at him.

“What are you doing up?” Robbie mumbled, peering back up at him.

“Just feeling a little restless,” Tobby murmured. “Actually trying to sleep for once?”

“I'm exhausted,” Robbie admitted. “I'm pretty sure that elf _did_ something to me.”

“I'm pretty sure it's just your lifestyle catching up to you.” Tobby came around the chair and poked Robbie until he scooted over, making enough space in the chair for Tobby to squeeze in beside him. He raised his hand automatically and let Tobby tuck himself into his side.

“You're a bit old to crawl into my lap when you can't sleep anymore.”

“M'not in your lap,” Tobby mumbled, already drifting off again now that he was comfortable. “I'm beside your lap. S' not the same thing.”

“A technicality.” Robbie eyed him for a few minutes, then leaned his head to rest on Tobby's. “All right, I suppose you can stay this once.”

“Mmm, that's good.” Tobby said. “That way we can both sleep.”

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear I didn't intend that both intermissions would be about someone sleeping and I was going to say "but don't worry, I won't make it a habit" but then I remembered what I've got slated for the third intermission if all goes according to plan so I won't.
> 
> Third act starts in the next chapter.


	16. Act III: Time To Start the Show

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sportacus pays Rikki a visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hold onto your hats, kids. Act III is stressful right out the gate.

 

Act III

-/-

Sportacus went with Robbie and Tobby to get the tent set up next day. The fairgrounds was a field just outside of the town's walls, a wide, open area that usually played host to any events that happened to occur in LazyTown, including arts and crafts fairs, the farmer's market, and, of course, the circus. Behind the field was a train station, and set off from the main track was a large shed that had been covered in graffiti, but in among the graffiti was the unmistakable logo of the Cirque du LazyTown.

“That's the circus train,” Ziggy said. "We use it for our tour." He made an attempt at a cartwheel, and Sportacus caught and steadied him when he unbalanced on his landing.

“You're getting better,” Sportacus reassured him. “You just need to work on your landings.”

“Okay, Sportacus. I'm gonna go over and practice while Robbie and Tobby put the tent up.”

“Good idea! Make sure one of the other kids spots you.”

Ziggy called an affirmative and ran off to drag Jives over to spot him, so Sportacus trotted over to Robbie and Tobby.

“Are you sure you're up for this?” he asked quietly.

“We don't have much choice,” Robbie said, while Tobby nodded. “If we don't put the tent up we can't rehearse, and we're already days behind. I'll be fine,” he added, when Sportacus looked doubtful. “I've spent most of the past thirty-six hours asleep. If my magic isn't strong enough at this point it won't be.”

Sportacus didn't mention that that was what he was worried about, and just folded his arm, taking a step back but being ready to catch Robbie if he needed to. Stubborn man, Sportacus thought, but a single glance at the children turning somersaults in the distance stilled his thoughts. Robbie had to be stubborn.

The process for putting the tent _up_ was much the same as the one for taking it down, but slower, though whether this was because of the process itself or because of Robbie's limitations, he didn't know. He watched in fascination as the tent slowly expanded, almost inflating like a balloon until it sat in the middle of the fairgrounds, exactly as it had before. It seemed smaller without the trees and buildings around for it to crowd.

Robbie wobbled, and Sportacus reached out to steady him, throwing an arm around his shoulder and letting the other lean back on him for a moment before he suddenly pushed away and straightened, tugging at his waistcoat and smoothing back his hair.

“See?” he said. “I _told_ you I'd be fine.”

“Okay, Robbie,” Sportacus said with a sigh. “I'm going to take off now, okay?”

“What? Oh! Right, yes, good. Carry on. I'll see you back at the house.”

“Where are you going?” Tobby asked, but Sportacus was already flipping away. Tobby raised an eyebrow at Robbie in question.

“He's just running an errand for me,” Robbie deflected. “Just something I need him to take care of.”

-/-

Sportacus slowed to an uneasy walk as he made his way up to the factory. Even outside of the factory's boundaries, he felt off-balance. There was iron in the factory: quite a lot of it. He would be going in half-blind, assuming he managed to get in at all. There would be no flips in a place of iron, no swift movements, none of his usual degree of motion.

Even the proximity of the iron was making his skin crawl. He took a deep breath. He had to do what he had to do. If it would help the circus...

It took longer than he'd expected to find the door. It seemed that Rikki had no interest in letting just anyone in and out of the factory, evidenced by the heavy iron gate over the entryway. Sportacus shivered. He really, _really_ didn't want to go inside.

“Sportacus!”

Sportacus startled, and turned around a little wild-eyed to see Rikki approaching. “Rikki,” he said, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. Every inch of his body was shouting at him to flee. “Hi. I was just looking for you.”

“Well, you've found me.” Rikki spread his hands wide and grinned. “And what can I do for you, my good.. man?”

He repressed a shudder. “I was thinking about your offer,” he said. “About buying out my contract.”

“You're considering it?” And oh, Sportacus didn't like the way Rikki was smiling at him. “ _Wonderful_!”

“Only _considering_ ,” Sportacus said. “I wanted to see what kind of work was done at the factory.”

“Oh, I wouldn't worry about _that_.” Rikki came near and put an arm around Sportacus's shoulder, steering him away from the door. Sportacus wanted to protest, but his body was already trying to make him move in that direction as it was, and allowed itself to be led. Sportacus swallowed heavily.

“What do you mean?”

“I think you misunderstood me,” he said. “When I said I had work for you, I didn't mean in my _factory_. No, I would _never_ waste such a _fine_ specimen as yourself in a _factory_. No, I mean to put you to work in my house.”

“Your... house?”

“Of course! I like to surround myself with beautiful things, you see, and my house is _filled_ with them.” Rikki's arm drifted instead to Sportacus's waist, and he leaned even more into Sportacus's personal space so that his voice was a warm whisper all-too-near to Sportacus's ear. “You would live a life surrounded by luxury. No dirty factories for _you_ , my friend.”

Sportacus repressed a shudder of revulsion, resisted the urge to push away from Rikki in disgust. “A-and, may I see this house where I would be surrounded by such beauty?”

Rikki beamed. “Of course! Right this way, right this way!”

He ushered Sportacus to his car and held the door open, urging Sportacus to slide inside. He did, trying not to let the feeling of unease wash over him again. He always felt uneasy in vehicles, particularly because iron was so involved in their construction. He felt like there was a heavy weight bearing down on him, and his senses were off kilter. Despite his eyes working perfectly, he felt blinded. He shuddered. How did humans manage to surround themselves so wholly by iron without a care?

-/-

By the time they reached Rikki's manor, Sportacus was at the point of wanting to crawl out of his own skin. He half-fell from the car in relief, and stood gulping down heavy lungfuls of air. Rikki gave him a look packed with false sympathy.

“Are you okay, my dear? I hadn't realized you were prone to motion sickness. Or is it perhaps the close space?”

“The space,” Sportacus said quickly, latching onto the excuse. “I don't like being confined.”

“Pity,” Rikki said drily. “Well, come along inside, I'll give you the grand tour. Perhaps you'll feel better for it.”

He threw an arm around Sportacus's shoulder again, but Sportacus pushed away. “Sorry,” he said hastily. “I just. Need some space.”

Rikki just inclined his head politely and gestured widely at the manor, indicating that Sportacus should go ahead of him. Sportacus did, though his every instinct was telling him not to put Rikki at his back, to put him in front so Sportacus could watch him. He shuddered, and quelled that instinct. He was here on a fact-finding mission; he had to practice discretion, and do his best not to put Rikki onto his scent.

There was iron in Rikki's manor. Sportacus could taste it in the air, but it wasn't enough and it wasn't near, so all it did was reinforce the sense of unease he felt. He longed for the open hills behind the estate, where the boundaries between worlds were thin and stretchy and one could, in the right circumstances, slip through them. He missed _his_ world, where iron could not, _would_ not enter.

He did his best to pay attention to Rikki's tour, watching the estate as he was led through it. He hated the place at a glance: the decorations were gaudy, extravagant; beautiful, perhaps, but too cluttered and mismatched to be truly attractive. Rikki seemed to be less fond of beauty and more fond of _stuff_ , and it was difficult to focus on anything in particular while he was so on edge.

It was a relief when he was finally able to leave. He and Rikki hovered at the door, exchanging niceties while Sportacus did his best not to flee.

“Thank you for the tour,” Sportacus said, his voice gone a little higher than usual. “I- I'll think about your offer. I don't know yet. But I'll think about it.”

“Don't think too long,” Rikki said. “It may not stay permanently open.”

“O-of course,” Sportacus said. “I'll keep that in mind. I ha-have to go now, I have rehearsal. I'll see you later. Bye!”

And with that he was off like a shot, vaulting over the low wall that surrounded the front walk and not even bothering with his usual flips, just running, running as fast as he could, from the blindness and the unease and the unmistakeable taste of iron in the air.

-/-

Sportacus found himself in the hills beyond the estate before he stopped. He was exhausted; he took an apple from his pouch and sprawled on his back, crunching into it desperately while he waited for his strength to return.

Once the apple was gone, Sportacus fiddled nervously with one of the seeds he'd taken from it. “That went poorly,” he said to himself. “But I can't give up. There's too much riding on me making this wish happen.” He tossed the seed into the air and caught it, tucking it back into his pouch and covering his eyes with his hand. “Give me strength, Mother,” he murmured in Elvish.

He felt his skin tingle while he lay there, felt the energy in the soil seeping up into his body. He closed his eyes and took a long, deep, steadying breath. He felt better now, calmer, and the lingering effects of the iron were gone, leaving him at ease. Another breath.

“Thank you, Mother,” he said, and stood.

Next time he would do better. _Next_ time he wouldn't fail.

-/-

Robbie and the kids were running through the program for opening night. A chalk board was hanging down in front of them, with a lot of drawings and symbols that Sportacus didn't have the context for. He slipped up and joined the group in the back, folding his arms over his chest and focusing on Robbie to get rid of the last of the buzz from his ordeal.

Robbie caught his eye when he came up, but said nothing to acknowledge him until they got to his part of the show. This was the first any of the kids seemed to notice he was there as well, and there was a brief lull in the meeting as they asked him where he'd been all morning.

“I just had to run an errand for Robbie,” he said, holding up his hands. “But I'm back now, so let's get back to the program, okay?”

Once Robbie had gone through the list a couple times to make sure everyone was on the same page, he dismissed them to have lunch and pulled Sportacus aside.

“Did you find anything?” he asked.

Sportacus had spent the entire meeting trying to think how he was going to explain what had happened. He was ashamed of his weakness, and knew that Robbie would be disappointed by his failure. He had finally decided on a version of honesty that left out his nerves regarding the iron in the factory and Rikki's house.

“I didn't get into the factory,” he said. “The place is locked down, and Rikki found me before I could find a way in. He invited me to his house instead, but I didn't see anything there that could be useful.”

Robbie frowned. “Why in the world did he invite you to his _house_ when he found you sneaking around his factory?”

This Sportacus _definitely_ wasn't sure he wanted Robbie to know about. He knew it was selfish, but he couldn't shake the feeling that Robbie would take Rikki up on his offer if he knew about it. After all, his loyalties were to his kids first, and he only barely liked Sportacus, if that. He had nothing to stop him from exploiting Sportacus's binding to the wish that had brought him to this world.

“He seems... very interested in me,” Sportacus said, which was at least the truth. He rubbed subconsciously at his arm where Rikki's hand had held him, leading him away, and fidgeted when he suddenly found himself under close scrutiny. Robbie's lip curled.

“Of course he is.” He paced irritably, and rounded on Sportacus. “Could you use that to get in again?”

Sportacus swallowed a protest that formed on his tongue immediately. “I can try,” he said. “I'll do my best.”

“Good. Good.” Robbie started pacing again, wringing his hands together. “All right. We've got three days till opening night and six days before we leave. So- you've got until then. So. Do what you can.”

“I will, Robbie.” Sportacus watched Robbie pacing, and felt even more guilty. Robbie was willing to push himself to the breaking point for his kids, and here Sportacus couldn't even handle a little iron. Disgraceful.

“Sportaflop, I-” Robbie broke off and strode over, taking Sportacus's shoulder's in his hands. His hands were warm and comfortable; reassuring after Rikki's touch. “ _Thank you_ ,” he said suddenly. “For everything you're doing. I'm not- I'm still not sure I like you, but I'm- I'm grateful for how willing you are to help my family. So. Um. Yeah.”

Sportacus melted a little. He reached up and rested his hands on Robbie's elbows, feather-light touches that Robbie could pull away from in an instant if he liked. “Of course,” he said. “It's literally what I'm here for.”

“Well I'm still grateful,” Robbie said, with a nervous laugh. “Because you don't- I- I know how elves can be. You couldn have- have _twisted_ the wish to suit your needs instead of- of just _granting_ it.”

“ _Robbie_.” Sportacus let his hands fall and took a step back, folding his arms. “Don't thank me just yet. We're not out of the woods- we're not even close to the woods. The woods are way over there, and we have to get to them.”

“Of course,” Robbie agreed. “So- so we should get back to work, then.”

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the part where I admit that I draw heavy inspiration for Discworld when I write elves. In case that wasn't blindingly obvious.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Backstory, and a shovel talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoah whoah whoah, what the shit Theo, you actually finally wrote that backstory and worldbuilding you've been promising us wowowow!!!!
> 
> Yeah, anyway.
> 
> Sorry for the wait, I've been wrestling this chapter for a few days and ended up having to rewrite it. Enjoy.

-/-

Robbie didn't ask Sportacus to go back to the factory over the next couple days, as he needed everyone constantly to get ready for opening night. The night before, they had dress rehearsal, everyone in their full costumes (which Robbie had only just managed to get ready in time) apart from Robbie, who still needed to finish his.

Sportacus was pleased to realize that in the dim circus tent, under the lights, his costume was far less obnoxious and far more suited. He'd been worried about that, but standing on the ground and watching Stephanie and Ella run through warm-ups, he could understand why flashy costumes were so necessary.

“Is it safe to let Ella perform?” he asked, when Robbie came up behind him. He turned around, and for just a moment Robbie seemed to freeze before giving a short, stilted nod.

“I wouldn't be able to stop her,” he admitted. “Besides, she's past the worst of it. It'll be a few more weeks before the wing-frames start growing in. It's a slow process, it'll be a year or more before they're full formed.”

“That long?” Sportacus looked startled. “I would have thought it would be- sooner.”

Robbie snorted, and shook his head. “The body had to grow a whole new pair of limbs _and_ adapt to the magic that it's going to start producing. It doesn't happen _overnight_. Even tadpoles take time to become frogs.”

“So how does it work, then? The growth, I mean. Sorry,” he added, in case the questions were inappropriate. “I don't really know that much about how the Fae work, and I've never met a hybrid before.”

Robbie shrugged, and held up three fingers. “Sleeves, wingframes, membranes,” he said. “You saw the sleeves, that's the worst part. We have cavities in our back to hide them in and protect them and on hybrids they have to be ripped open using magic. Then the wingframes start coming, and once they're stable the membranes will start forming. That's the easy part, it only takes a few days.”

Sportacus nodded, and his eyes flickered for just a moment over Robbie's shoulder. He snapped his gaze back to Robbie's face, fidgeting his hands absently. He knew Robbie had to have wings too, he'd hinted as much before and it seemed to be connected to having magic. He wanted to see them, wanted to see what a fully grown Fae's wings looked like, but he felt like it would be rude to ask.

Robbie seemed to catch the direction his thoughts were going, and sighed. “You want to see them, don't you?”

“Only if you want to show me!” Sportacus said quickly, ears turning pink at the thought. “I'm just curious. You don't have to do anything you don't want to.”

Robbie shifted uncomfortably. “I don't really like anyone to see them.”

“Then I'll respect that,” Sportacus said. “Um, can I ask why not?”

“It's a bit.” Robbie's cheeks burned. “It's a bit _intimate_ , okay? Just because _you'll_ undress at the drop of a hat doesn't mean the rest of us like to.”

“Okay, Robbie,” Sportacus said with a laugh. He still didn't understand Robbie's obsession with him keeping his clothes on. “I won't ask to see them, then.”

“Thank you.”

-/-

Rehearsing the program as-was was different than regular rehearsals. When they weren't performing or up next, they sat out in the audience, spread out so they could see the show from any angle. Sportacus watched the kids as one by one they went through their act. They seemed more fluid than he'd ever seen them, all joined together like this: there was none of their usual working through a bit over and over. Sportacus was the opening act, so as soon as he was done he took a seat out in the audience and cheered each of the kids on while they performed.

Apart from dancing grins that lit up their faces, none of the kids really acknowledged his cheers, except Trixie. She winked at him when he whooped after a particularly risky stunt, waggled her eyebrows after getting the lion on its back, and in general hammed it up for her audience of one. This didn't surprise him. He'd long learned that Trixie was a ham, and her act lent to such hamminess.

As it was time for Stephanie and Ella's finale performance, Sportacus became aware of Robbie beside him. He looked over at him; Robbie was a little out of breath, and red from the exertion. Sportacus offered him the water bottle he'd been sipping on. Robbie rolled his eyes and took it, wrinkling his nose and sniffing it hesitantly before taking a quick sip.

“Disgusting,” he said, and passed the bottle back.

They were silent, watching Stephanie and Ella almost flying overhead. Robbie stiffened each time one of them let go of the trapeze bars, and after a few times of this Sportacus reached over and took his hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Robbie startled at the contact, and pulled his hand away. Sportacus gave him an apologetic look.

“They'll be fine,” he said instead. “They won't fall.”

At that, Robbie let out a strangled laugh, but said nothing.

“Robbie?”

“It's fine. I let them perform. I let them fly. That's the best I can offer. I can't stop worrying.”

Sportacus nodded, and fidgeted his hands into his lap. He felt suddenly self-conscious about how little space there was between himself and Robbie, but Robbie didn't move, and Sportacus didn't either.

-/-

In the changing room after rehearsal, Trixie plunked down on the bench while Stephanie and Ella changed from their own costumes, having already abandoned hers during everyone else's sets. She studied the long slits down Ella's back while the other girl changed; Ella had told her roommates what was going on with her, but Trixie could barely believe it. She wouldn't, if not for the slits that now curved from under her shoulder blades, down her back and waist to the base of her back on either side.

When she'd shown them, Ella had let them carefully pull aside the flaps of skin that covered the slits, showing them the cavities that would, in time, house her wings, letting her keep them hidden and safe when she wasn't using them.

“I still can't believe you're a _fairy_ ,” Trixie said. She reached down and dug a pot of salve out of Ella's bag. Ella turned and made a sharp, insistent motion. Trixie sighed. “ _Fae_ then. What's the difference?”

_About six feet_ . Ella smirked, and then sat down on the bench beside Trixie, straddling it and leaning forward so that Trixie could reach her back easily. Now that she didn't need the constant pain-numbing spells, she had decided she preferred Stephanie and Trixie to rub the salve into her back instead. It was easier than pulling her uncles away from their own duties, and let her sisters see for themselves that what she had told them was real.

Trixie scooped out a bit and rubbed it on her hands before setting them against her back. Trixie's touch was different to Stephanie's: where Stephanie was precision and detail, Trixie was firm, a gentle firmness that had Ella almost melting into her touch. Trixie looked pleased with herself.

“When the circus thing goes belly-up, at least I know I have potential as a masseuse. Okay, Ella, I'm done.” She capped the pot of salve and returned it to Ella's bag. “Let's go, guys.”

-/-

Trixie kept her eyes on Sportacus while the group walked home. Once she knew that Ella was a Fae, and Robbie and Tobby as well, she'd been watching him. He wasn't human, that much was apparent: no human could act like that. But she didn't think he was Fae, either. For one thing, she'd seen him exercising without his shirt enough times to know that there were no wing-slits on his back.

So probably not Fae. Unfortunately, she didn't know enough about the Hidden Folk to be able to guess any further than that. She hadn't even know that there was a difference between fairies and Fae, though Ella had been  _very_ insistent about that.

So she watched Sportacus, waiting for some indication of what he  _really_ was, and tried not to fume about being lied to  _again_ . And she had started to notice other things, too. Like how Sportacus and Robbie would alternate between standing very close together, always finding some excuse to touch, and putting a lot of distance between each other. And how when they did that, Sportacus would often watch Robbie with a wistful kind of pained look on his face, like he was doing now. He was walking in the middle of the group with Ziggy, half an eye on the boy talking to him but half an eye on Robbie.

Trixie folded her arms and screwed up her face in thought. This was something that bore more thought. And maybe shoving them into a closet together.

-/-

Robbie disappeared as soon as dinner was done to finish his costume; Sportacus waited long enough to help clean up after dinner and went out to check on him. He knocked, but only waited a moment to open the door to the shed. Robbie was in the middle of the shed, running something purple and silk through a sewing machine. Sportacus leaned on the doorframe to watch him, arms folded in thought.

“Robbie?” he said tentatively, after a few minutes. Robbie didn't even look up.

“None of your lectures,” he grumbled. “This _has_ to be done, I don't have an option to stop and rest.”

“I was actually going to ask if you'd like some company.”

Robbie shrugged, and Sportacus came in and sat on the stool in the corner. “Will it take long to finish?”

“Probably not. I've only got the cape after I finish the jacket, I'm predicting an hour, maybe an hour and a half's worth of work left.” He yawned. “Which is for the best. You've got me sleeping regularly now and I'm actually _tired_.”

“Good,” Sportacus said. He leaned back, and for a long time the only sounds were Robbie's sewing machine. It was Robbie who broke the silence.

“Do you have any siblings, Sportanerd?”

Sportacus laughed. “I'm the youngest of ten, actually. Why?”

“ _Ten_?” Robbie's eyebrows disappeared into his hair. “Is _that_ why you've got that ten on your shirt?”

Sportacus nodded. “Elves don't really give out our real names, so we mostly use nicknames. In my family, I'm Tíu.”

“That's creative.” Robbie snorted. “You must have been a nightmare for your older siblings.”

“Actually, everyone says I'm the laid back one.”

“ _You_?” Robbie let out a surprised laugh. “In that case I never want to meet any of your siblings! Ever!”

Sportacus giggled, and they fell into silence again, with Robbie muttering to himself over his sewing machine and Sportacus watching him fondly, a faint blush tinging his ears pink. Once again it was Robbie who broke the silence.

“My brothers have been trying to take some of the load off of me for ages now, apparently. Tobby told me.”

“They're looking out for you.” Sportacus was getting antsy; he stood and flipped into a handstand on the bench. Robbie rolled his eyes. “You can't just do everything yourself, and it's their circus too. You should let them help more.”

Robbie hummed noncommittally. He held up his completed jacket and inspected it for any errors. “I brought them up, you know,” he said quietly. “Bobby and Tobby, I mean. Our parents died within a year of each other, right after Tobby was born, and Bobby was only a toddler at the time. Our grandmother was there for a few more years but she wasn't able to get around much toward the end there. So it was mostly just me.”

He waved his hand absently, sending the jacket to the stand and bringing the pieces of his cape to him instead. Sportacus flipped around so he was balancing on the stool on his hands, his legs stuck out on either side. He tilted his head to one side.

“They shouldn't have put that on you,” he said. “How old were you?”

“I was eighteen. And if I hadn't taken on to look after them, we'd have been separated. They might have left Flobby with me, he was mostly grown already, but Nobby and the boys would have been put into foster care. I couldn't let that happen.”

Sportacus dropped down onto the stool, crossing his legs at the ankles. “You know, sometimes my oldest siblings don't really seem to realize that I'm grown up now. They still treat me like I'm a little boy and they have to mind me.”

Robbie looked up, and caught Sportacus's eye, and knew that Sportacus understood what he was trying to explain. Sportacus gave him a small smile, and flipped back up into a handstand.

“You should let your brothers help you,” he said. “You don't have to do everything alone anymore.”

-/-

By the time Robbie finished his cape, he was yawning, and Sportacus was starting to nod a bit as well. He slipped an arm around Robbie's waist to hold them both up, leaning on him a little while Robbie locked up the shed. He was pleased to note that Robbie didn't push him away this time, or argue when Sportacus steered them toward the hammock rather than the house.

It was nice, falling asleep with Robbie nearby. There was space between them on the wide hammock, plenty of room, but know he was close enough to reach out and touch was a quiet reassurance in its own right, and Sportacus took no time at all to slip off to sleep.

-/-

They woke at sunrise to realize that in the night Robbie had rolled over and sprawled out so that his arm was thrown over Sportacus's chest. He pulled it away as though he'd been burned, and then yelped when the motion sent the hammock spinning and dumping both of them on the ground. This time it was Robbie who landed on Sportacus, their heads knocking together as they landed.

“We've _got_ to stop meeting like this,” Sportacus said, while Robbie brought a hand up to hold his head. Robbie let out a nervous giggle at that, and then followed Sportacus's gaze when he leaned his head back and looked up at Trixie, standing over them with her arms folded.

“Mr. Rikur is here,” she said. “He wants to see you, Robbie.”

“...Right.” Robbie untangled himself and stood, forgot about the hammock and got tangled in it, dumping him back onto the ground. He managed to get his feet under him the second time, and hurried up to the house, completely aware that he was slightly damp from the grass and hoping whatever Rikki had to say wouldn't put him off the show tonight.

Meanwhile, Sportacus got up- much more gracefully- and realized Trixie was staring him down. She had her slingshot in hand. He suddenly feared for his kneecaps.

“So,” Trixie said, tapping her foot. “What are your intentions with my dad?”

“Ah.” Sportacus swallowed. “I. Ah.” He looked around for an escape, and saw none. “Uh.”

Trixie's eyes were narrowed. Sportacus took a step back-

-and got tangled up in his hammock for his trouble. It dumped him back on the ground and he sighed.

“Trixie,” he said, and hauled himself up into a sitting position, legs crossed in front of him. “I'm trying to help Robbie. That's all the intentions I have.”

“Uh-huh.” She looked like she didn't believe him. He patted the spot beside him, but she didn't take it. He sighed.

“I mean it. Robbie needs help- a lot of help- and I'm trying to give him that help. That's all that's going on.”

Trixie searched his face for a long minute, looking for any sign of dishonesty, and apparently didn't find any. She finally took the spot beside him and hugged her knees to her chest. He draped an arm around her shoulder and let her lean on him.

“Trixie?”

“I don't know. I guess I was kinda hoping for... more.” She shrugged half-heartedly.

“Oh, I see.” He stood, and scooped Trixie up with him, swinging her playfully before heading up to the house. “You like me that much, then?”

“I like you as much as I like my bunny slippers, and slightly more than I like chocolate pudding.”

“ _Really_? That much?”

“If I had to choose between you and chocolate pudding, I would definitely choose you.”

“Good to know.”

-/-

Robbie detoured through the bathroom on his way out to see Rikki, taking just long enough to brush the grass off of his clothes and comb his hair back into something presentable. He grimaced at his reflection, but there was no time for anything better. He hurried out the front door, where Rikki was waiting on the front porch, cane tossed nonchalantly over his shoulder.

“Ah, Robbie,” he said. “I do hope I didn't wake you?”

“I was just going to wake up anyway,” Robbie lied. “What can I do for you?”

“Oh, not much. I just came here to wish you luck before the show tonight. So much is riding on this season, after all.”

“..right.” Robbie squinted at him, then half-turned to go back inside. “If that's all you wanted- I have to get the kids up, is all...”

“Of course, of course.” Rikki grinned at him, and made to leave as well. At the top of the steps, he stopped and turned back around. “Ah- one more thing- when you see Sportacus, will you tell him my offer will only stand for a little longer? If he's going to take me up on it, it will have to be soon.”

“What? What offer do-”

“Goodbye, my dear, I'll see you at the show tonight.”

He turned with a wave, and sauntered off down the walk, ignoring Robbie's called inquiry. Once he was gone, Robbie frowned, and turned to head inside. What offer?

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys guess what happens next chapter? That's right! We FINALLY get to the CIRCUS part of my story about a CIRCUS. AMAZING. And it only took sixteen chapters.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And now it's time to start the show.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also known as Mood Whiplash: The Chapter. -sets this down and stands outside of projectile range-

-/-

Robbie did his best to focus on getting the kids awake and fed, trying to put Rikki's words from his mind. He knew he had a tendency to dwell, knew that if given half a chance his mind would settle on that one thought and let it fester until he could think of nothing else. And Rikki knew that, too; years of “friendship” had made the man intimately aware of Robbie's weaknesses.

This was _calculated_. Robbie _knew_ it was calculated. For all he knew, Rikki's offer to Sportacus was something innocuous, something as simple as a- as-

Okay, he couldn't think of anything _harmless_ that it could be. But that didn't mean it was anything _bad_ either.

And it certainly didn't mean that Sportacus was working with or for Rikki, which was what his brain was trying to insist. After all, if he were working with or for him, the offer wouldn't still be _open_ , right?

Unless Rikki was trying to lure Sportacus away? And Sportacus was thinking about it?

But that was silly. Sportacus had sworn he meant the circus no harm. That he was just trying to help them. Had sworn it in a magically binding way, after all. He'd said he was only-

-no. He hadn't. Robbie froze, his toothbrush halfway to his mouth. No, that _wasn't_ what Sportacus had sworn. He'd said he _was trying to help_. He hadn't said he was trying to help _them_.

Robbie dropped his toothbrush at the realization and buried his face in his hands. Stupid, _stupid_. How could you be so _stupid_? He ran his hands though his hair, tightening his grip and pulling until his scalp ached. Hadn't Amma always told him? _Exact words_ , _Robbie_. He sank down to the floor slowly, crossing his legs in front of him and folding himself over. You _always_ listen to the _exact words_!

He was struggling to get a hold of himself, to get his breathing back under control, when there was a heavy banging on the bathroom door. He ignored it- there were two other bathrooms in the house, they could use one of them. It kept on, though, and then the door opened and suddenly Sportacus was at his side.

“Robbie!” _Oh no, oh no_. He took Robbie's shoulder, but Robbie shrugged him off. He didn't want anyone, especially Sportacus, touching him right now. Sportacus at least got the message, and hung back, but he was still concerned. “Okay. Do you need anything?”

Robbie nodded, and gestured emphatically at the door, still hanging open. Sportacus gave it a quick look. “You want it closed?” A nod. Sportacus stood and pulled the door closed, and moved back over to kneel in front of Robbie, still careful to give him space. “Do you need anything else?”

Robbie just shook his head. As long as nobody else saw him like this, he would just let it pass. And keep Sportacus here in the meantime, so he could chew him out as soon as he got his voice back.

“It's going to be okay, Robbie,” Sportacus was saying softly. “I don't know what it was to make you like this, but once this passes we can make it right. Okay? Just focus on breathing. That's it, Robbie, in and.... out....”

Robbie realized there was an undercurrent to the air, and recognized it as being very similar to his own calming spell. He focused on Sportacus's voice- the words didn't matter, he knew- and his breathing, until soon he was unfolding himself a little, sagging heavily. He hurt all over, but at least he was a little calmer. He waved his hand at Sportacus to stop with the calming spell.

“Are you okay, Robbie?”

“You said you were here to help,” Robbie said. He swallowed heavily, while Sportacus opened his mouth to respond, and waved his hand for Sportacus to stay quiet. “You said you were here to _help_. You never said you were here to help _us_.”

“Ah.” Sportacus looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Robbie froze. He'd hoped- he'd wanted to be _wrong_. “I...”

“What did Rikki offer you?”

“Robbie?”

“He was just here. He told me to tell you that his _offer_ wouldn't be open for much _longer_.” Robbie was breathing heavily again, anger this time. “ _What did he offer you_?”

Sportacus hung his head. Opened his mouth a few times to answer, but nothing came. Robbie stood, pulling himself to his full height. “Get out,” he hissed. When Sportacus didn't move, he snarled. “ _Get out_. Get out of my house, out of my circus, and _away from my family_. Out!”

Sportacus stood and took one step back, and another, and then turned and ran. It wasn't fear, exactly- but to challenge a Fae in his own territory was foolish, and Sportacus was no fool.

Once he was gone, Robbie sank to the floor again and pulled his knees up, curling his arms around his head and focusing entirely on breathing.

-/-

The kids had already started heading into town after breakfast, to hand out fliers again and get the townspeople hype for the circus. Only Ziggy and Trixie remained behind at this point, still cleaning up from breakfast. Sportacus barely acknowledged them as he zipped out the door and out into the yard, flipping his way to the road and into town.

-/-

The manor didn't feel any safer approaching it this time. Sportacus flipped to his feet and walked the rest of the way up to the manor, steps growing slower and heavier as he got nearer, until he finally stood on the doorstep. He took a few deep breaths before knocking, and refused to take a step back when Rikki threw the door open and beamed down at him.

He repressed a shudder. Rikki looked too much like a predator like this.

“If I come work with you,” he said slowly. He swallowed. “You'll leave Robbie and the circus alone? You'll forget the debt?”

Rikki's already wide smile curled into something sinister and sharp, and he put an arm around Sportacus's shoulder, turning and leading him inside.

“Why, my dear, of _course_ I will.”

-/-

Robbie eventually managed to get himself under control, mostly through sheer force of will and at least four lollipops eaten in quick succession. He paced in the den, muttering to himself around a fifth. What was he going to do now? He'd just sent his _headlining act_ away the day before _opening night_. What had he been _thinking_?

“Robbie?” He looked up. Trixie and Ziggy were standing in the doorway. “Is everything okay?”

“It's fine!” he said quickly, and realized they would never buy it. He knelt and rested his hands on their shoulders. “I'm just nervous,” he went on. “So much is riding on tonight going well.”

Ziggy nodded. “But it'll be okay, Robbie!” he said. “Sportacus will help us!”

“Ah.” Robbie snapped his mouth closed and hung his head. How to explain. “Sportacus is- he's- he's not coming- tonight. Or. Maybe not at all.”

“What?”

If it was possible for Robbie to feel worse, he did it now: Ziggy looked like he'd been told there would never been anymore Christmases or birthdays again. Robbie's heart clenched.

“It'll be fine,” he said. “Something- came up- he had to- he had to go.”

“But-”

“It'll be okay, Ziggy. We'll manage without him.”

“But....”

Trixie folded her arms and stared at him hard. “You're lying,” she said. “What did you do?”

“I- I didn't- Trixie, could you possibly go five minutes without undermining me?”

“I don't know, can you go five minutes without lying to us?”

He narrowed his eyes at her, but she ignored him and threw her arms around Ziggy's shoulders. “Come on, Zig-zag, let's go. We'll find Sportacus and ask him ourself, since Robbie won't tell us.”

“You don't think Sportacus doesn't like us anymore, do you?” Ziggy asked, as they left. Robbie didn't hear Trixie's answer, but he could hear the accusation in her tone all the same.

-/-

Trixie reassured Ziggy that it probably wasn't anything they'd done, and led him into town so they could find Sportacus. It didn't take long before she had to admit that she didn't even know where to _begin_ looking, though, and the two ended up sitting on a bench in the middle of town, frowning out at the square and wracking their brains for where Sportacus might have gone.

“What if- what if he _doesn't_ like us anymore?” Ziggy demanded.

Trixie scoffed. “I _told_ you, Ziggy, it has nothing to do with _us_. It's Robbie and Sportacus. They're- well- I don't really know what they are, but they're being _dumb_ about it.”

“So it's grown-up stuff?”

“Yeah. Grown-up stuff.” She sighed. “Come on, let's keep looking. Maybe one of the others has seen him.”

-/-

They looked everywhere, but by the time the sun was starting to sink and it was time to meet up at the fairgrounds to get ready, there was still no sign of him. Ziggy looked almost in tears; Trixie took his hand and held on to him while they headed to the fairgrounds.

“Ziggy, would you stop crying?” she said suddenly. “We've got a show to do, you can't go on looking like you've been blubbering.”

“But Trixie!” Ziggy scrubbed at his face. He hadn't _yet_ started crying, but the tears had started forming. “Why would Sportacus just _leave_ us like that?”

“Because that's what adults _do_!” She shook his hand off and stormed off in the direction of the fairgrounds; Ziggy hurried after her. She shoved her hands deep into her pockets and ignored him.

-/-

By the time Robbie joined the kids at the fairgrounds, they were all seeming mopey and down. He sighed. He was starting to see that he had played right into Rikki's hands by driving Sportacus away. He scrubbed his hands irritably over his face. Okay. One problem at a time. He moved over to where the kids were clustering.

“Look... I know you're all upset about Sportal- Sportacus not performing tonight. And disappearing. ...and leaving you.” He hesitated, and shook his head. “But you all know what is riding on this performance. You know what's at stake. I know you- you're all upset. You have- you have every right to be. But if we let this stop us, all of you are in danger. So can we please- maybe backburner the Sportacus problem? And focus on our performance?”

Pixel raised his hand. “What happens when you go out there and tell these people that the new act they were excited for isn't performing? He's our headline.”

“He's only part of our headline, and you let me worry about that. Managing the crowd is the ringmaster's job. You just keep the effects going.”

“What did you do to Sportacus?” Trixie demanded, raising her own hand. “Why did he leave?”

“That's not important right now,” Robbie said. “Please, just-” He rubbed at his temples. “ _Please_. I don't want to _lose_ you kids, can you _please_ just- just go out there and give a good performance so we can start the season on a high note? We can deal with the Sportacus thing _later_. _Please_.”

There was a long silence, interspersed with mumbling, while the kids exchanges uneasy looks, but Stephanie stood and moved over to Robbie to take his hand.

“Okay, Robbie. One thing at a time.”

-/-

The tent was filling up. Milford had come back to tell him that they'd sold out all of their passes. It was their best season opener in years. And he had no doubt that all of those people were here to see his missing headline. He buried his face in his hands and took a few deep breaths. Okay, Robbie. One thing at a time. Start the show. Apologize to the people. Do the best you can. Make up for the disappointment.

Okay.

He took a deep breath, and threw open the curtain that would lead out into the ring. As he strode purposefully to the center spot, the lights clicked on and, roaming around for a moment, finally came to rest on him. _Well done, boys_ , he thought.

“LA-DIIIIES, AND _GENTLEMEN!_ ” he called, voice magically enhanced so that everyone could hear him. Some of the tension was falling off of him; it always did, when he was in the ring, in front of an audience. _This_ was where he belonged. “I am _terribly_ sorry to inform you that Sportacus the Magnificent, our Strong Man, is... feeling a bit under the weather tonight.” He paused; a murmur went through the audience, a ripple of disappointment. Deep breaths. “HOW _EVER_! Worry NOT, my _GOOD PEOPLE_!” And now he was in his element, voice booming and shifting with his theatrics. He gave the audience a dazzling smile. “FOR! If you will look down at your pass stubs, you will see a DATE! That's RIGHT! _Today's_ date, in fact!”

Another pause. He gave them time to take in that something important was happening, and spread his arms wide.

“SO! _Hold_ onto your ticket stubs, folks! Because as SOON as our Magnificent Sportacus is back on his feet, we will have a FREE SHOW to make up for it! And you'll get to see him in ALL OF HIS GLORY! But for now- I _do_ hope that our young friends here will be enough satisfy you for the evening!”

He took a slight bow and gestured around him: the spotlights exploded into life and landed instead on the kids, spaced out around the back half of the ring in a semicircle. The lights landed on them one by one, and each took a bow as they found themselves focused on. The effect worked. The audience exploded into applause, cheering on the young performers.

And then just as quickly the lights flicked off, and a single light turned on over Robbie again. He twirled his fake mustache and leaned toward the audience, beaming conspiratorially at all of them. “Would you like to see the show now?”

The roar from the audience was deafening. Robbie snapped the fingers of both hands and vanished in a cloud of mist; no sooner had he vanished than Jives appeared instead. Robbie, in the booth, held his breath; Jives was good, far better than he thought he was, but as an opening act, he had the potential to drive the show down. He only hoped the kid was up to the new tricks Robbie had introduced into his act.

Tricks that Sportacus had helped him perfect. Robbie bit down on the tip of his thumb anxiously. It had been a _month_. Why did Sportacus feel like such an irremovable part of their show after just a _month_?

Too late to worry now. Jives was already on his hands, while the audience murmured in confusion. They all knew Jives, and knew he was a juggler-

-and there was the first ball, painted with silver glitter, appearing seemingly from nowhere to balance on one foot. He bounced it from one foot to the other, and then suddenly another joined it, this one gold: they flashed and shimmered as he kicked them in wide arcs. There was a murmur from the crowd as the third joined it, this one pink, and then the fourth- green- and fifth- blue- until he had all five spinning in complicated patterns through the air.

Robbie was chewing on this thumb again now. The next bit was the part he was worried the most about, because it had the potential to go pear-shaped very quickly, but he'd talked to Jives about it a lot and the boy had insisted he could do it.

A gasp went through the crowd when the Jives kicked all five balls into the air and they burst into flame as one. Everything went _silent_ after that: they were holding their breath, surprise coating them. This was the real reason they'd decided on the foot juggling; Jives had better foot-coordination anyway, but the fact that his costume was fireproof meant that he could keep the flame from harming him, and there was less risk to his face and hands.

The act hit an end very abruptly, as Jives sent all five balls into the air one at a time, forming a flaming centipede of fireballs that vanished up into the dark recesses of the tent roof. There was a long pause while the audience waited for them to reappear, but when they didn't, they seemed to realize it was over. They burst into applause, cheers and whistles coming from all over, and a hoarse voice shouting over everything, “Yeeeeeah! That's my _boi_!”

Jives flipped to his feet, took his bows, and then gave the signal. Robbie vanished from the booth at the same time Jives vanished from the ring, much to the delight of the audience.

“I _do_ hope you all ENJOYED that!” Robbie said, and immediately launched into the next stage of their show.

-/-

Sportacus woke to blindness. The world was dark, deep dark. Sportacus wasn't used to dark: his elven eyesight was better even than a cat's, or an owl's; even the tiniest spark of light was enough for him to see the world lit up. Which meant that wherever he was, there was no way for any light to get in at all.

There was more. As he woke, he became aware of the throb of iron around him. There was so much that it was no wonder he hadn't immediately noticed it; his mind had pushed away the realization of its presence in sheer self-defense.

He sat up slowly, struggling to control his breathing despite the very air weighing him down. What was going on? The last thing he remembered was Rikki offering him an apple from the fruit bowl on the table. What had happened next? He struggled to remember, but there was nothing, just searing pain that cut off abruptly when he'd passed out.

It was almost like he'd eaten pure, undiluted sugar, but why would-

Sportacus froze, as the realization washed over him. The iron gates on the factory. The subtle feeling of iron in the house. And now the sugar-

Oh no.

Oh _no_.

Rikki had been prepared for an elf.

Rikki had been prepared _. For. An. Elf._

 _Oh_ _no_.

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two things.
> 
> 1\. We have now officially reached the _tip_ of the iceberg that is Rikki's creepiness.
> 
> 2\. I really hope y'all have been paying attention to the way Sportacus chooses to word things.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sportacus and Robbie say goodbye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holding true to form, I wrote Rikki and IMMEDIATELY had to redo my plot. AGAIN. I love this asshole but he's so annoying. Stop that.

-/-

Sportacus wasn't sure how long he sat there in the darkness. He ate an apple from his pouch, and that gave him back some strength, but the iron in the air still weighed him down. He tried meditating instead, focusing himself on the parts of him that _were_ working, and ignoring the parts that weren't.

He pulled his hat down over his eyes while he did. It made no difference whatsoever, but the feel of something over his eyes was enough to trick his mind into thinking that he had some small control over the amount of darkness. It helped.

Not much, but it helped.

-/-

After the show was over, and Ella and Stephanie had landed and taken their bows, and Robbie had reappeared in the center ring to bid the audience a good night, they met up in the backstage area of the tent to breathe. Robbie was about to speak when the tentflap opened and Rikki sauntered in.

“Hello, Robbie,” he said. “Wonderful performance tonight! Absolutely wonderful!” He strode over to Robbie and laid a hand on his arm. “I wonder if I could speak with you for a moment?”

Robbie just rubbed his forehead tiredly, and nodded. “Of course,” he said. “Just for a moment. I'll be right back, kids. Just wait here.”

He followed Rikki out of the tent and into the warm night. They moved a little way away from the shadow of the tent; Rikki inspected his cane head absently for a moment before flicking some imagined dust from it and turning his attention back to Robbie.

“I came to tell you that your debt to me has been repaid,” he said.

Of all the things Robbie was expecting, this wasn't it. His mouth opened a little. “ _What_?”

“Yes, I know! Dear Sportacus decided to take me up on my offer. He's come to work for me in exchange for me dropping the debt. Wasn't that kind of him?”

Robbie's mouth went dry. He tried to speak, but his words caught in his throat. On the second try, he managed a strained, “He did?”

“Yes, I know! So selfless, wouldn't you agree? A loss for the circus, of course, since you no longer have your headliner, but at least you're not in debt anymore, right?” Robbie felt faint; Rikki gave him a look packed with sympathy. “Are you all right, dear?”

“Y-yes. I'm fine.” He scrubbed his hands down his face. “Do- do you think I could- speak with him? To- to thank him?” _And to apologize._

“Of course! Why don't you come by after lunch tomorrow? I'm sure he'll be _happy_ to see you.”

“Right. Lunch. ...right.” Robbie's shoulders sagged a little. “I- I have to go take care of the kids. I'll- I'll see you tomorrow.”

“Of course, dear. Till tomorrow, then.”

And with that, he turned and sauntered off into the night, leaving Robbie to make his way heavily back to the tent to break the news to the kids.

-/-

Stephanie couldn't sleep. Her head felt weird, a faint buzz at the base of her skull, a pull telling her something was _wrong_. She'd been feeling it all evening, and now that the adrenaline from their performance had died down, there was nothing to distract her from it.

It wasn't painful, per se. It was just _uncomfortable_.

She rolled onto her back and sighed at the bottom of Trixie's bunk. If she'd been paying more attention, she might have realized that Trixie's usual snores were missing, but she was too focused on the buzzing in her head to notice. She pushed her covers aside. She wasn't going to get to sleep any time soon, she just knew it. Instead she slipped out of bed and over to the window, pulling it open carefully and slipping out onto the roof.

It was a warm night, and the skies overhead were clear. There wasn't much of a moon, either. It reminded her of the night she'd wished for Sportacus to come help them, and that thought just made her miserable. She hugged her knees to her chest. He'd helped them, all right. And now he was stuck working for Mr. Rikur, who he would most definitely be unhappy with, and she couldn't help feeling it was her fault. If she hadn't wished for him...

“Stephanie?”

She looked up at the window to see Trixie leaning out of it, squinting at her sleepily. “What are you doing out here?”

“I couldn't sleep,” Stephanie admitted. Trixie hauled herself out the window and over to sit beside her; Stephanie raised her arm and let Trixie lean into her. “I was thinking about Sportacus.”

“I can't believe he really did that for us,” Trixie said quietly. She hugged her knees to her chest, and rested her chin on them. “He's going to be so miserable, you know he hates being around Mr. Rikur.”

“I don't blame him. He always makes me feel like I need a shower.” She shuddered. “But what can we do?”

“I don't know. It's not like we had a lot of options.”

“True.”

“Stephanie?”

“Yeah?”

“I'd rather have Sportacus back and just be in debt again.”

“Me too.”

-/-

He'd been doing pushups in the dark- something he _could_ do, using his body only, and it hurt but it was the kind of hurt that he could work with, and use it to drive away the numbing feeling of the iron. He'd lost count somewhere around a thousand, and he had no idea how much time had passed. He'd stopped once, to eat another of the apples in his pouch. He only had one left. He'd have to wait as long as he could before eating it.

The sudden appearance of light somewhere above him made him hiss, and drop to cover his face with his hands. He gave his eyes time to adjust to the light filtering through his fingers before moving them slowly and sitting up. The light itself was quite dim, a dull glow coming from a doorway at the top of some stairs, but after the darkness he'd been contained in it was blinding.

Now that he could see, he used the opportunity to look around. He was in a basement, by the looks of it, but one made entirely of concrete and reinforced with iron. Iron beams at the rafters. Iron bars down the wall. Even in the floor he could see iron filaments mixed with the concrete. He suppressed a shudder, and slowly turned his attention to Rikki, who was prowling down the steps toward him.

He was different now. His body language lacked the grandness, the approachability that he usually gave it. Instead he walked slightly hunched, a curl to his lip and a predatory gleam in his eye. When he stopped in front of Sportacus, he folded his arms, and looked down his nose at him.

“So you're awake,” he said. His voice had changed as well: no longer warm, it now had a slightly guttural quality to it. “Sleep well, did you?”

“As well as anyone who'd been poisoned could, I imagine,” Sportacus drawled. “I don't suppose you've come here to let me go, have you?”

“After all the trouble I went through to get you?” Rikki guffawed. “Besides! This is what we _agreed_ to, is it not? That you would come work for me, and I would leave your precious circus alone?”

“Why lock me up, then?”

“Because I need you nice and pliant for what I have planned.” When Sportacus said nothing in reply to this, Rikki scoffed. “I'm not going to _tell_ you.”

“Oh. I was kind of hoping you would.”

There was silence. Sportacus watched Rikki pacing irritably, before he stopped and crouched in front of Sportacus. “Dear Robbie is coming to see you, to say goodbye,” he said. “You're not to say a word of this to him.”

“Okay.” Sportacus hung his head, refusing to look Rikki in the face. As if he would tell anyway. And it would give him a chance to apologize to Robbie as well.

Suddenly Rikki had grabbed his jaw in a tight grip, forcing his face back up so Rikki could look him in the eye. “Although,” he said quietly, “I do wonder how far Robbie would be willing to go to get you back?”

Sportacus's face hardened, and he glared up at Rikki defiantly. He hissed and bared his teeth, his real teeth, thin, sharp points that gleamed too-white in the dim-almost-dark light. A predatory smile split Rikki's face and he chuckled, deep in his chest.

“So that's how it is. I wonder if I can make use of that?”

Sportacus snarled. “Hurt them and I'll break your neck.”

“Hm. We'll see.” He pushed Sportacus away and stood. “I'll come down and collect you when Robbie arrives. Remember what I said, Sportacus. Not a word.”

-/-

It was dark again. Sportacus was lying on his back, staring up at what he knew to be the iron-clad rafters of Rikki's basement. He was doing some curly thinking, the kind of thinking that came naturally to elves.

The kind of thinking Sportacus had never been good at.

He was too honest, that was the problem. Einn was always knocking his head about it, chiding him for his devotion to the truth.

“ _You can't lie_ ,” _Einn had said, “But that doesn't mean you have to tell the truth. You leave out details, you take advantage of what words mean, you stick to what the human wants to hear, and you **always** mind the exact words_.”

Sportacus had never seen the need for curly thinking. He just wanted to help people, and he didn't understand why elves always had to come out on top of their dealings with humans. Why couldn't they just  _help_ them? Why did they have to treat it as some kind of prank? (Not that Sportacus didn't like pranks, mind you, but making humans think you were helping them only to pull the rug out from under them with exact words didn't sound fun at all. It just sounded mean.)

But he'd have to do some very curly thinking if he wanted to get out of this situation with Rikki without putting the circus in danger again.

He wished Einn were here. Einn would have already found a way.

Sportacus sat up suddenly. Maybe- maybe he  _could_ get Einn to help him. His hand strayed to his side, to the pouch of seeds he'd collected. Every fruit and vegetable he'd eaten in the human world he'd kept the seeds, all in the pouch at his side. They were his only shot at getting a message to Einn. He'd just have to play his cards right. And hope that Einn could read between the lines.

-/-

Robbie hadn't intended to spend the night in Sportacus's hammock again. But with everyone else in bed, his feet had drawn him out there of their own accord, and he'd lain down for a lack of anything better to do. Sportacus had been right, Robbie  _did_ rest better under the stars. He'd said it had something to do with magic. Robbie wished he'd had the chance to ask him, now. Wished he'd spent more time talking to him. More time listening to him.

More time trusting him.

Robbie huffed and rolled over, pillowing his head in his hands and staring out into the dark shadows of the forest while he waited for sleep to come.

He was still awake an hour later when he heard soft footfalls approaching. He rolled over to look- it was Pablo. He scooted over and sat up, gesturing for Pablo to sit with him.

“I got the kitchen done,” Pablo said. “I came to tell I'm heading home for the night.”

“Sit with me awhile? Just for awhile.”

Pablo took the proffered seat and leaned back, watching Robbie in his periphery.

“So we're really leaving without him?”

Robbie shrugged. Pablo sighed.

“If you were to ask _me_ , I'd suggest getting Sportacus back. We can pay Rikki back somehow, but letting Sportacus basically sell himself to the creep for us wouldn't sit well with me.”

“You think it sits well with _me_?” He flopped back and folded his hands over his chest. “I can't- I don't _like_ it. But I can't- the risk- if it's Sportacus or- or the kids-” He dug the heels of his hands into his forehead and grumbled irritably. “I _know_ he'd- he'd agree with me. I _know_ it.”

“Do you think that makes it _right_?” Pablo stood, and folded his arms. “You know, I've known you for twenty years, and in all that time, I think this is the first time you've ever actually disappointed me.”

Robbie said nothing. When it became apparent he was going to say no more, Pablo shook his head. “All right,” he said. “If that's how you want to be.”

-/-

The wait till lunchtime next day was a long, slow, unbearable one, and Robbie left early, taking the long way through town to kill the remaining time. He eventually found himself outside of Rikki's manor, and, after quite a lot of pacing and fidgeting at the gate, he made his way up the walk and knocked on the door.

-/-

Sportacus stood in the foyer, waiting, and fidgeting. Rikki had clapped a pair of iron cuffs around his wrists, a reminder of his position, but they were hidden almost entirely under his bracers and so it wasn't likely that Robbie would notice, even if he did know what they meant.

He drew in a sharp breath at the knock on the door, and, after a nod from Rikki- leaned against his cane to one side- Sportacus closed the gap and threw the door open.

-/-

Robbie had expected to have to work to get to see Sportacus, not to see him answering the door himself, giving Robbie that smile he had, like the sun greeting the first day of spring.

“Sportacus,” Robbie said, a little startled. “...Hi.”

“Hi.”

An awkward silence descended. Robbie rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. “So. Um.”

“I'm sorry,” Sportacus said suddenly, at the same time Robbie managed a choked, “I owe you an apology.”

They both stopped. Blinked. Sportacus gestured for Robbie to speak.

“I- I shouldn't have yelled at you,” Robbie said, looking away rather than meet Sportacus's eyes. “I heard- and I assumed- and I thought that you-” He trailed off, and hung his head. “Anyway, I'm sorry.”

“Thank you. I- I'm sorry, too. I should have told you about Rikki's offer from the beginning.”

“No you shouldn't. You promised to help, not- not sell yourself.”

“I'm not selling myself, just my service.” Sportacus laid a hand on Robbie's shoulder. Robbie looked down at it. “Robbie, can you do something for me?”

“Anything,” Robbie said quickly. Sportacus dropped his hand, and took the pouch off of his side.

“Since Stephanie's wish has officially been granted, I need you to take the wish-price to my village. They need these.”

“The- seeds?” Robbie squinted at the pouch full of seeds in Sportacus's hands. “You- _that's_ the wish price? You. Really did all this for _apples_?”

“And pears and cucumbers and grapes and watermelon and-”

“Yes, all right, I get it.” He took the pouch. “How do I get these to your village?”

“Oh, right.” Sportacus took off his hat and reached into it, taking out a whistle carved from stone. He handed it over to Robbie. “Just take that to the hills and blow it. Your- you know- you should be able to exist within the barrier without passing through it. One of my siblings will come get the seeds from you. Do you mind?” he added, giving Robbie a hopeful look.

“No, not at all. It's the least I could do after... after everything. Um.”

Another silence descended. The pouch and whistle disappeared into Robbie's waistcoat.

“I- I guess I should go,” Robbie said. “I'll, um, I'll see you around, I guess.”

“I doubt it. But. Tell the kids goodbye for me? And that I'm sorry. About leaving them.”

“Right. Right.” Robbie wrung his hands together. “I'll- I'll just- go.”

He turned on his heel then and positively fled, vanishing as soon as he was clear of the gate. Sportacus let the door close behind him and leaned on it with a muffled sob, closing his eyes and taking a few deep breaths. Rikki was already behind him, touching his shoulder gently and, Sportacus knew even without looking around, giving him that predatory grin that made his skin crawl.

“There, there,” he said. His voice held no trace of comfort. In fact he seemed amused. “You did the right thing! Now little Robbie can keep his circus going! It's for the best. He'd never have chosen you over it anyway. After all, he chose the circus over his own mother. And if _she_ didn't stand a chance- well, what shot did you have?”

Sportacus frowned. “He said his parents were dead.”

“Ah, well.” Rikki shrugged, and opened the basement. “Then he's a liar, too. Good evening, Sportacus, enjoy your basement.”

Sportacus stayed where he was while the door clicked closed behind him. He shook his head. He would believe Robbie over Rikki any day, but-

-but why would Robbie lie about something like that?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been waiting since I started writing this fic to use the line about Sportacus's teeth.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robbie talks to Einn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was hoping Einn would take up a lot of the chapter for pacing reasons, but I wasn't expecting him to take up ninety percent of the bloody thing.

-/-

The show that evening was not their best. The audience was half the size it had been the night before, word about Sportacus's absence having gotten out, and the kids were all worried about their friend. Robbie, always at his best in the ring, was just as distracted, working more on muscle memory and rote than any real awareness of what was going on.

At the end of the night, it was apparent the audience had not been met with satisfaction, and Robbie watched them go with a kind of dull numbness spreading through his chest.

Their show had been fine without Sportacus for years. But ever since he'd come here, he'd wrapped the circus around himself, and made himself a part of it as if he'd been there forever. If the circus was going to thrive, they'd need him. And his kids, well, they adored him. They _missed_ him.

Robbie trudged home after the kids, his mind a million miles away. There had to be something they could do. At this rate the circus would fail whether they were in debt or not.

-/-

Robbie waited until the kids were all asleep to slip out of the hammock and make his way over to the hills. Even with teleporting part of the way, he was still out of breath by the time he stood at the top of the highest hill, high enough to overlook the town in the distance. He leaned on his knees. He hadn't realized the hills got so high out this way.

Once he'd got his breath back he held up the whistle Sportacus had given him. He turned it over in his hands thoughtfully, wondering what it was made from. Besides magic, of course, because it throbbed with the same undercurrent that he always felt when Sportacus was touching him. It was oddly comforting. He hadn't realized how much he'd gotten _used_ to it.

Robbie was stalling. He knew he was. He gave himself a few more seconds, just to psych himself up, and then put the whistle to his lips and blew.

It didn't sound like any whistle he'd ever heard before. It sounded- it sounded like he'd always imagined magic would sound, if magic could be heard. Not the tinkle-tinkle that people always associated with magic and elves, but a kind of soft, hollow sound that vibrated under his skin and inside his head. It seemed to echo, and Robbie realized he wasn't so much _hearing_ the sound as _feeling_ it.

The hills were starting to change. The world around him was darkening, not as to night but to a dingy gray-black tone. Only the hills below his feet kept their color, but even they were changing, shifting from the dull yellow-green of a too-hot summer to a brilliant, dazzling green, green that was almost a separate entity unto itself.

Even as he took this in, he began to see color again- colored threads, shapes that popped out of the washed out surroundings. The skeletal outlines of houses and roads, shining gold in some places and silver in others, bathing the grey around them in a soft red glow. He turned slowly on the spot, taking in the hills around him, the way they looked from within the barrier between the two realms. The silver shapes were familiar, and as he looked he realized that they were the houses in LazyTown. The gold shapes surrounded them, even as the silver shapes surrounded the gold.

Robbie knew that there were places in LazyTown and its surrounding areas that people refused to build on, because of ancient superstitions about the gentry and fear of insulting their hidden neighbors. Judging by the seamless way the golden homes of the elves blended into the human town, the elves held the same courtesy for their human neighbors.

LazyTown, it appeared, was twice the size Robbie had previously thought.

There was one spot that wasn't silver _or_ gold, and Robbie realized with a start that it was his own home- his house was a deep purple outline, the land around it glowing slightly mauve. He wondered why that should be so, but even as he pondered that he realized there were colorful shadows moving through the grey world, or not moving at all. Vaguely humanoid blurs in every color imaginable, some going about their business and some sitting comfortably at home, some even sleeping.

And one red shadow moving right towards him, solidifying as it did, until Robbie was standing face to face with an elf clad in deep reds and soft pinks, a hat like Sportacus's sitting back on his head. Unlike Sportacus, he didn't feel the need to cover his ears.

Robbie gulped. This was, quite clearly, one of Sportacus's brothers; he looked very similar to Sportacus, and smaller- no, not smaller, _more compact_. Like he had a lot more mass and magic all packed into approximately the same space. He also looked annoyed. And while his eyes were the same comforting shade of blue as Sportacus's, they held none of Sportacus's gentleness. Rather, he gave off the impression of being inches away from clocking someone, or at least storming away in anger.

He frowned. “I responded to what I thought was my brother's call and find a Fae half-breed here instead,” he said. “I hope you have a good explanation, Fae. Where is my brother?”

“He's- ah.” Robbie hesitated, not sure how to explain. He got the feeling that if he said what Sportacus had done, this elf might hit him on sheer principle. “He's- he was unable to make it here. The details of his- his contract- he made a deal-” Robbie trailed off. He couldn't do it. “He sold himself,” he said quietly. “He paid our debt with his own service, so our circus could be free.”

The elf said a few words that Robbie strongly suspected were elvish profanity, and said, “Of course he did, the little fool. But what are _you_ doing here?”

“He asked me to bring you this.” Robbie reached into his waistcoat and took out the pouch of seeds. “To pay the wish-price. Since the wish was officially granted.”

The elf reached out for the pouch, but when his hand touched it he frowned, and let it fall. “What is the meaning of this? The wish isn't granted. Not by a long shot.”

“What?”

“I'm saying, my foolish little brother still has work to do. The terms of the wish haven't been met.”

Robbie resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Echo answers, what?”

This got him a surprised eyebrow, and an amused smirk. The elf reached out and pushed Robbie's still-outstretched hand back to him. “The terms of the wish were,” and here he paused, and his eyes took on a faint glow. “I wish for someone who could help use save our circus. Someone who won't hurt us later, like Rikki is. Maybe send us an angel! The nicest one you have...”

It was... eerie, to hear Stephanie's voice coming from the elf's lips, toned slightly hollow and reverberating around them. Robbie's brow furrowed, trying to look at the wish from a magical angle. This wasn't something he'd ever been good at, the wish-granting aspect of magical beings. Most hybrids had no power to grant wishes, that being the reserve of those with full blood.

The elf gave him a wry smile. “We had no angels available,” he said. “Though as the wish listed that as a _maybe_ that was okay. We _did_ compensate by sending the 'nicest' person we had, though. Tíu may be a fool, but he is a kindhearted one, for better or for worse.”

“I'm sorry,” Robbie said finally, shaking his head. “I'm not as good at exact words as you lot are. Why do you say the wish isn't granted?”

The elf huffed, and folded his arms. “Can you honestly tell me that your circus has been saved? Your debt has been repaid, yes- but is your circus now free to carry on without worry?”

“I- well-” Robbie sighed. No, they weren't. “We need Sportacus,” he said. “We're still  _ failing _ .”

“Yes, that's what I thought. Until your circus can truly be considered 'saved', the wish cannot be considered granted.”

He fell silent, and watched Robbie expectantly. Uncomfortable under such scrutiny, Robbie looked down at the pouch in his hand instead. He frowned.

“Why do you need these?” he asked. “What is so important about them that you would make them a wish-price?”

The elf's face shifted at that, becoming a bit more weary. He looked out over the village thoughtfully, and shook his head. “There was a drought last year.”

Robbie nodded. “Yes, I remember that. A lot of our farms suffered for it.”

Another of those wry smiles. “As did ours. And being weakened from the drought left our crops susceptible to pestilence, when it passed through.” His eyes flickered to the pouch of seeds, a touch of longing in his gaze. “Our farms didn't just suffer, they died. And all of our magic was not enough to regrow them.”

“You-” Robbie's eyebrows went up as he realized what the elf was implying. “You don't have any food.”

“We have food, Fae. We always have stores put away, and there's meat and fish, of course. But stores run out, and we have no  _ seeds _ . Without growing things, that meat and fish will not live much longer either. We are desperate- desperate enough to place our fates into the hands of my foolish little brother, whose heart bleeds to help anyone who needs him.”

Robbie looked at the seeds again. “Your- entire village is depending on my circus.”

“In a manner of speaking. Hey, hold on.” The elf reached out and caught his shoulder, even as Robbie began sinking down to fold himself down, curling his arms over his head. “Are you okay?”

“Your village. Is depending. On  _ my circus _ .”

“Ah-”

“Because! It wasn't bad enough when it was just  _ me _ and  _ my brothers _ and  _ my kids _ and  _ Pablo _ , now I've got the fate of  _ an entire elf village _ in my hands!” He gave a desperate, strangled laugh. The seeds fell to the ground. “No pressure or anything! Just gotta get your circus back on top by the end of the summer so a whole village full of elves  _ doesn't starve to death _ !”

“Oh dear.”

“Are you  _ serious _ ? My circus is  _ seven kids _ and  _ three adults _ ! There are  _ twelve _ of us! And my headlining act! My last hope! The act that was meant to be my saving grace! Is now playing butler! For  _ Rikki!  _ _ **Fucking** _ _. Rikur! _ ” He let out a desperate sob. “Oh gods. What am I going to do? It's too much. I never asked for this, I just wanted to have my own show, it was supposed to be fun. How did we get this far? I don't- I don't want this.”

The elf fidgeted. “Where is Átta when you need her?” he muttered. “She's... much better at this. Oh dear.” Fidget. He knelt and pulled Robbie's hands down. “Fae? Listen to me, Fae. You need to calm down.”

“And then there's  _ this _ guy.” Robbie shuddered violently, trying to force down another sob. “Do you have any idea what kind of pressure I'm under here?”

“I lead this entire village, and I helped raise most of my siblings,” he said drily. “I suspect you and I are kindred spirits, in fact.”

“Oh.”

“Listen.” The elf rested his hands on Robbie's shoulders. “Do not think of my village. We are a resourceful people, and if my brother fails, we'll find another way. There's always a way. Just focus on your own family.”

“I can't just-”

“You can. You will. Our problems are not yours. Although.” And here he narrowed his eyes. “I suggest your first solution be to remove my brother from this 'Rikur' person who has him. I do not wish to find my way through this barrier to reach him myself, and if I have to, no one else will be happy about it, either.”

Robbie gulped. It was amazing how quickly the elf could go from reassuring to terrifying. “R-right. I'll do that.”

“Good.” He patted Robbie's cheek. “Now run along. It's getting late, and you need your rest.”

He took two steps back, and then he'd slipped back through the barrier, dissolving into a shadowy red shape. Robbie folded his legs in front of him rather than stand, not quite ready to slip back into his own world.

The pouch of seeds was in front of him. He picked it up and tucked it back into his waistcoat thoughtfully. Regardless of what the elf had told him, he knew that their fate was in his hands now.

It was nice here, inside the barrier. Existing not in one place or the other. A bit like being part Fae, really- not entirely human, not entirely Fae. Not belonging in the human world, but the hidden world barred from him for his blood.

He closed his eyes thoughtfully. Now where had that thought come from? His mind drifted back, across thirty or more years, to the table of his Amma's kitchen, where he'd sat eating cake while she taught him about magic. He'd only half paid attention, learning just enough about theory to be able to use his magic, and build it from there- Amma had tried, but it was hard to pay attention to her words when she droned on about technical details.

But the lessons on the hidden world had stuck with him, he supposed, because of the wistful way she'd spoken of it. Those with human blood couldn't enter, she'd said. Now why was that? She'd explained it to him, he knew. He wracked his brain, trying to remember.

_ Ah _ ! Of course,  _ iron _ ! Iron couldn't exist within the hidden world, and human blood had iron in it.

Iron didn't interact well with the hidden folk, she'd told him. That was why sometimes their line's magic couldn't take hold, when there was human blood in factor.

Iron. That seemed important. Why was he thinking about iron?

The image of Sportacus floated into his head, Sportacus with his hand on Robbie's shoulder, gripping just a tad too tight. Sportacus taking his hand and tucking a pouch of seeds into it.

Robbie's eyes snapped open. He tried to leap to his feet, only to trip and go sprawling in the grass. He barely landed before he was trying again, managing an ungainly half-run down the hill, teleporting whenever his feet tried to fall out from under him.

Iron.

Sportacus had been wearing iron cuffs under his bracers.

-/-

Einn walked slowly through the sleeping elf village, until he reached the little stone hut that was his sister's home. Átta answered the door and let him in without a word.

“I heard the call,” she said. “Has our brother returned with the seeds?”

Einn shook his head. Átta wordlessly took down a pitcher of cider and poured them both a mug. She gestured for him to sit and followed suit beside him, and for a long time they sat there in silence, broken only by the occasional sip. Finally Átta set her mug down with a clink and turned to her brother.

“What happened?”

He told her. She listened while he spoke, and only scolded him a little when he admitted to telling the Fae that their village was depending on him.

“You did that on purpose,” she said. He shrugged.

“And why shouldn't I? He was going to leave Tíu with that human, I could see it in his eyes. I had to let him see how much we needed him.”

“It was mean.”

“Would you rather we all starve, and Tíu wilt away in human service, so that I could avoid being  _ mean _ to a Fae?”

“No. But you probably could have gone about that better.”

Einn scoffed. “You didn't see him, Átta. He had Tíu's magic all over him.”

“ _ Ah _ .”

“Don't you 'ah' me, sister. If our Tíu has set his sights on this  _ hybrid _ -”

“-then that is his choice.”

“-then we shall never seen him again. He won't return to our world if his  _ Fae _ can't join him.”

“And we will miss him.”

“Átta.”

“He's not a little boy anymore.”

“Átta...”

“I  _ will _ miss him, though.”

-/-

Robbie reached the house at the same moment that the girls were slipping outside, dressed in dark blue hoodies and pants. They stopped dead and stared at each other, and Robbie folded his arms expectantly, waiting for one of them to speak. It was Ella who finally did, signing a hesitant, _Would you believe... sleepwalking?_

Robbie shook his head. “No. But I will believe you were sneaking out to save Sportacus.”

They hung their heads, but then Trixie balled her hands into fists and took on a stance like she was ready to fight, glaring up at him. “Yeah, we were! So what about it? You wanna fight?”

“No. I want to help.” He paused. “In fact, I'd prefer you to just go back inside and go to bed, but I think I've raised you three long enough to know that you won't and you'll follow me anyway. So at least you're going to stay where I can keep an eye on you.”

“Really?” Trixie looked surprised, and Robbie shrugged.

“I'm going to need your help anyway. And I mean, it's not like I'm not in the  _ habit _ of putting young children in danger for the sake of a circus." For just a moment, he looked bitter, then, "All right, come on then. Good thinking wearing the blue, by the way. Blends in a lot better with the night than black.”

“Told you,” Trixie said, looking smug.

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sure there's no reason this is going to go wrong.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A rescue mission that can't possibly go wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, I took a short break to write another thing (which I will post in a few minutes).

-/-

Robbie had regrets the whole time he led the girls through the backstreets of LazyTown to Rikki's manor. Most of them were about the amount of danger that he was putting them in, and what would happen to them if they were caught. No doubt Rikki had a security system, what if he called the cops? His kids didn't need to go through that, especially not Ella, whose half-healed wingslits would raise a lot of questions that Robbie wasn't willing to answer. Especially not Trixie, who probably already had a record and didn't need attention drawn to her. Especially not Stephanie, who had never been in trouble in her life and certainly didn't need to start now.

“Oh _gods_ ,” Robbie said, rubbing his hand down his face when they found themselves outside of the manor. What had he been _thinking_? “Okay, I changed my mind. You three are going back home right now, and I'm doing this myself.”

Stephanie opened her mouth to protest, but Trixie elbowed her and gave Robbie an innocent look. “Okay, Robbie,” she said. “We'll just go home now, all the way through the dark and dangerous streets of LazyTown where anything could happen to us while we're not with you.”

She gave him a pointed look. He sighed. “ _Fine_. Stay _here_ , then. You can help me get Sportaflop home once I get him out. He's probably going to need it.”

More innocent looks, which he didn't believe for a moment.

The smart thing to do, he knew, would be to take them home right now. To tell them to forget about it, to put them into an enchanted sleep if he had to, and come back alone. But he'd already come all this way, and it was getting late, and he couldn't get the image of Sportacus chained up in irons out of his head. He shook himself.

“Stay,” he said firmly, and crept up to the manor.

-/-

“ _Stay_ ,” Trixie mimicked, and scowled. “Who does he think he's kidding?”

“He's trying to keep us safe,” Stephanie said. “We never should have come here.”

“Too late for that now.” Trixie peeked over the wall, watching Robbie creep around the house, looking for a way in, before suddenly vanishing in a puff of mist. She ducked back behind the wall. Okay. That was unexpected. She glanced at Stephanie and Ella, both watching her, and peeked up again. She could see her way into the house easily enough- okay. She ducked back down. “I'm going in,” she said. “You guys stay here, I'll unlock the door for you.”

“Do you really think that will work?”

“Of course it'll work. Rikki's not here, see? His car's not in the driveway, he's probably out somewhere. It'll be fine.”

Ella signed a question. Trixie scoffed.

“You think I don't know my own game? It'll be fine. I'll be back in a few minutes.”

With one last reassurance, she vaulted over the wall and crept up to the manor as well.

-/-

It wasn't hard to get into the manor- Robbie just looked around until he found a second-floor window that was open just enough he could mist through. Once inside, he crouched inside the room he'd found himself in and looked around, giving his eyes time to adjust to the shadows around him.

Now that he could see, at least somewhat, he let magic creep into his vision, giving him a little more visibility and, more importantly, letting him 'see' more of the house than just that around him. He could feel the shape of it, now, sense everything around him.

Everything except-

Bingo.

Robbie crept through the house slowly, making his way toward the big, obvious, gaping hole in his sense. The kind of place that didn't give off a magic aura because iron didn't give off a magic aura. If Sportacus was being held by iron, that was where he'd be.

-/-

Trixie was smart enough not to try the front door. She'd have to pick the locks, and Rikki was far more likely to notice the locks being picked on his front door than, say, the outside trapdoor to the root cellar, which he likely never bothered with and was less likely to realize had been picked.

Trixie was good at picking locks. It didn't take her long before she heard the click of the padlock on the cellar door. She pocketed it and let herself in, pulling the root cellar closed behind her before dropping down the short chute to the base.

It was dark in the root cellar, but that didn't matter. She was also good at feeling her way around in the dark.

The door was locked. Trixie said a word that Robbie would scold her for, and huffed. She was good at picking locks, and good at getting around in the dark, but she wasn't good at picking locks in the dark.

-/-

Stephanie and Ella were still hiding behind the wall when they heard the car approaching. Ella grabbed Stephanie's hand and pulled her up and over the wall, just as a pair of headlights swept over where they'd been.

_We need to hide_ , Ella signed.

Stephanie shook her head.  _We need to warn Trixie and Robbie._

A pause, and a nod.  _Around the back. We'll hug the wall_ .

Stephanie agreed, and the two began making their way along the wall, grateful for the shadows over the moon that meant they were largely hidden, as long as they didn't move too quickly.

While they crept along, the driveway's gate opened, and Rikki's car pulled in, pulling up to park beside the house. Stephanie and Ella exchanged horrified looks and dove back over the wall, begging him not to have noticed them.

It was too much to hope. They crouched behind the wall, straining to hear the sound of the door opening, when a shadow was suddenly looming over them. They both looked up when a hand clamped onto each of their hoodies.

“What do we have here?” Rikki growled. “A couple of spies?” He looked between them, and when his gaze landed on Ella he grinned, gleefully malicious. “ _Well_ now. This is almost more than I could have ever hoped for. Wonderful! Come with me.”

He lifted them both over the wall, clutching tight to the back of their hoodies; they struggled, and Stephanie managed to slip out of hers, dropping down to the wall and sprinting along it until she was out of reach before dropping down and disappearing into the night. Rikki snarled, and adjusted his grip on Ella so she couldn't get free too, and rolled his eyes.

“Oh well,” he said, glaring out at where Stephanie had disappeared. “You're the one I wanted anyway. Come on, my dear,” he added, voice dripping with syrup. “You've just made a bad night _so_ good.”

-/-

Behind the wall, Stephanie bit down hard on her hand to quiet her whimpering. She hadn't  _meant_ to abandon Ella- she'd just been so scared, and her feet had carried her away without her thinking about it.

She didn't like the sound of Rikki's words. She heard the front door open and close, and then pulled her knees up, hugging herself and taking long, deep breaths, trying to quell her fear. She had to  _do_ something, but she was too scared to even move.

-/-

Robbie made his way through the house slowly, trying not to make a sound or alert Rikki to his presence. True, he didn't sense the man anywhere in the house, except where he'd imprinted his presence on the place, but he wouldn't put it past him to have some way of cloaking himself. Robbie shook his head. No, he had underestimated Rikki, and wouldn't be doing so again.

He did eventually find the door that led to the lack of magic. It was heavily bolted, and a padlock held one of the locks in place. Robbie spread out a little magical awareness- okay, okay. No one around. He rubbed his hands together, magical sparks dancing along his fingers, lighting up the dim room. He took the lock in his hands, feeding the sparks into it until it cracked open under the strain. He stuck it in his pocket and let himself into the room carefully.

He'd been expecting that Sportacus would be chained to the wall, or locked in a cage, or something like that, but when he opened the door and flooded the room with light, he instead saw him lying down in a large iron room, curled up on his side in one corner. He frowned when the elf didn't move, and misted down to the floor rather than bother with the stairs.

“Sportaflip? Come on, time to wake up. Up and at 'em.” He knelt over Sportacus's still form. “Come on, buddy. Sportacus?” He shook the elf and got a moan for his troubles, and remembered to breathe again. With how still Sportacus had been lying-

-no time for that. Robbie tried once more to wake Sportacus to no avail, and sat back on his heels. “All right, how to get you out of here?”

“Robbie! So _good_ of you to join us!”

Robbie twisted around to see Rikki at the top of the stairs, holding-

-oh no.  _Oh no oh no_ . He had Ella held tightly, and there was a leer on his face. Robbie hissed.

“What are you doing with her?”

“I found your little mouse sneaking around on my property,” Rikki said. “But I wouldn't worry myself so much. She'll be _well_ taken care of! I have plans for her, you see. Don't _worry_ so much, Robbie! I won't harm a single hair on her dainty little head.”

He patted her head to make his point, and Robbie snarled, misting up through the room in anger, only to have the door slammed on him. He rematerialized and pounded his fists on the door. He could hear Rikki laughing as he moved away, cut off by a yelp of pain. Robbie's face twisted into a grim smile at that. At least Ella was fighting.

“Robbie?” Robbie half turned and misted back down to Sportacus's side, reaching out and touching the elf's forehead reassuringly. “'m sorry, Robbie,” Sportacus mumbled. Robbie stroked his hair back from his face and made a reassuring noise at him.

“Don't,” he said. “You have nothing to apologize for.”

-/-

The room Rikki took Ella to was much nicer than the basement where Sportacus was being kept: it was small, and mostly bare, apart from a woven rug on the floor and a stool set in the corner, but it was lit, at least, and there was no iron to be seen. Rikki pushed her in and closed the door behind him, and Ella threw herself at the door only to hear him sliding more locks and deadbolts into place. She gave the door an angry kick, but it was heavy, and there would be no getting past it with force alone.

If only she had magic, she thought. He'd never be able to hold her then, she'd just mist out the way her uncle did. Or just teleport, though he'd always warned her not to teleport blind. Or she could magic the door, or create a new one to the outside, or- or  _something_ . Instead of standing here uselessly while her uncle and Sportacus were trapped, and her sister was- who knew where. Had Rikki found Trixie? She didn't know.

At least Stephanie was safe. Ella sank down to the floor and hugged her knees to her chest. She was trying not to feel hurt that Stephanie had abandoned her, but it was hard, and she was so scared.

-/-

Trixie did eventually manage to get the lock picked on the cellar, but before she could open it she heard a door open on the other side. She dropped down off of the cellar steps and felt along the side. Bingo! There was a cubby of space under the steps; she squeezed into it, and pulled her shirt up over her nose so no stray dust would make her sneeze and give herself away.

No sooner had she done this than the cellar door opened and someone came in. It was Rikki, no doubt- he had long strides, and after a moment he started speaking. She suppressed a shudder. His friendly tone was gone, replaced by a hard and cruel one.

“It's about time you answered,” he said. Trixie pressed her hand against her mouth. “I got the other two. Yes, they practically delivered themselves to my front door.”

He was rummaging for something in the cellar. Trixie heard a few thumps and saw a potato roll by, followed by a muffled curse from Rikki. She pressed farther back into the stairs, but Rikki didn't seem inclined to go after the potatoes he'd dropped.

“I'm not worried about the fourth one,” he said irritably. “It was enough trouble getting the other three! Anyway, he's not worth it, I'd get barely anything off of him. An adult Fae with barely any magic? No, he was never a part of my plans.”

There was another break, and she heard him mumbling to himself while he carried on taking out potatoes from the bin. After a moment, he huffed.

“Well _obviously_ if he makes it easy I'll take him! He won't bring _much_ but _some_ is better than _nothing_. He's just not a _priority_ now that I have the others.”

He seemed satisfied with the potatoes, finally, and Trixie heard him heading back into the kitchen. Once she'd heard the door click closed, she waited, giving him a moment in case he decided to come back, then hauled herself back up to the steps and pressed her ear to the door to listen.

“-got the girl and the elf, that's what matters,” he was saying. “An elf! Can you believe it? A rare prize, never in my wildest _dreams_ did I think this job would end with me catching an _elf_. He'll fetch such a high price- as for the _girl_...” Rikki chuckled. “She's a little slip of a thing, she doesn't talk, and her wings have only just started growing. By the time she has any magic at all she'll have been properly trained and know how to behave herself. She'll make an _excellent_ pet. I might just start an _auction_ , see who wants her the most.”

Trixie stuffed her fist in her mouth rather than make any of the sounds trying to escape her at his words. Ella! Poor Ella. She never should have left her behind to sneak in.

“I'm glad to have this job done with,” Rikki went on, after an apparently long-winded reply from whoever he was talking to. “This persona was _fun_ to begin with but I'm getting _bored_. Do you have any idea how hard it is to make sure I'm always _friendly_ and _amicable_? No, I'll be glad to let Rikki Rikur die when this is all over.”

There was another pause, and then Rikki- or whoever he was- burst out laughing, deep, malicious chuckles.

“Robbie? I wouldn't worry about _him_! His magic is practically dead, he's been killing it for _years_. He won't be any trouble.” He chuckled. “Oh, I wouldn't worry about the price. Once the collectors know what he is, they'll be tripping over themselves to give me their money.”

More pause. Trixie heard the sound of grease popping, as though something had been dropped into it, and after a moment Rikki snarled.

“Don't worry so much. You'll get your cut, yes, once we have the creatures sold off. Why are you so worried? Have I _ever_ done you wrong?” A huff. “Yes, yes, all right, so I've swindled you a few times- yes, all right, and left you to die- yes, yes, okay, fine! But don't you see? You know to watch me closely! How could I pull one over on you _this_ time?”

Trixie stifled a sob against her hand and dropped back down to crawl into her cubbyhole. She pushed herself as far back as she could and pulled her hood up, burying her face in her knees and willing herself into silence. She had to help them, had to get them all away before Rikki could sell them to these- these  _collectors_ who treated elves and fae like things to be  _bought_ .

But she as very,  _very_ scared.

-/-

Robbie had tried magicking the locks through the door, had tried magicking the door itself away, had tried banging on it and yelled himself hoarse shouting a mixture of curses and obscenities in Rikki's direction. Nothing had worked, the door absorbing the magic he tried using on it. Not just iron, then, since iron didn't effect Robbie's magic like it would a full-blooded Fae. Something else, something meant to block hybrid magic as well.

Now he had folded his legs up so he could sit beside Sportacus, holding one of his hands and stroking his hair with the other. He needed to think, to find a way to get Sportacus out of this room with the iron around him, but his own magic was weakening the longer he stayed in the room himself.

“I don't suppose you have any more apples squirreled away on your person, do you?” Robbie asked, and frowned when he got no response. He patted Sportacus's face a few times. “Hey, wake up, Sportaflop.”

Sportacus mumbled a protest, and opened his eyes to give Robbie an exhausted glare. Suddenly his eyes shot open, staring at- or rather, behind- Robbie.

Ah, he'd noticed.

“Robbie, are those...?”

“Well.” Robbie blushed, unnoticed in the dim glow from his wings. “We needed some light in here and I didn't bring a flashlight...”

“They're beautiful,” Sportacus said, eyes already drifting closed again.

Robbie gave him a weak smile, and resumed stroking his hair. “I'll let you get a good look at them once we're out of this,” he said. Sportacus shifted.

“Promise?”

“Swear it.”

The air around them loosened, for just a moment feeling like the fresh air of the hills, and Robbie raised his head, looking around. That... wasn't normal. Was it? Normally the air got heavier with a magic promise, not lighter.

“Mother 's on our side,” Sportacus mumbled, and then added something in elvish that Robbie couldn't understand.

There was no waking this time. Robbie sighed and let go of his hand, standing and moving away from him. The time for panicking was past. He and Sportacus were trapped, at least one of his kids was also trapped, and who knew where the other two were. He had to  _act_ . He had to  _do something_ .

But  _gods_ he was scared.

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I mentioned this on my blog, but for those of you not in the loop, I've given it some thought and decided that the best way to tell the story I need to tell, and have it end the way I want it to, is to split the story into two volumes. On this volume we've got one more intermission, a final six-chapter act, and a stinger scene. After that will come a three chapter break about the history of the circus, and then volume II.
> 
> I'm currently undecided, so I'm wondering what you guys thing about this: should I split the backstory and Volume II into separate fics, or just continue updating in this one? I personally feel that it will work best as a single story, but I'm on the fence and curious about what you guys thing.


	22. Intermission 3: Return of the Intermission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Backstory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You've probably figured out the shape of Trixie's backstory, but this should clear things up a bit.

-/-

It had been three days. Mama had said to stay here at the circus, that she and Papa had a quick job to do and they would be back soon. They'd been very clear that Trixie  _wasn't_ to leave the circus until they came back for her, and then they'd bought her a hot dog and disappeared while she was distracted by a boy not much older than her juggling a lot of colorful balls near the tent's entrance.

Three days. Trixie had made a little nest behind the lion's cage, using a blanket she'd swiped from the train during the show, and had stolen food from the train as well. Not much, just enough to survive, and no one, so far, had noticed her.

But it had been three days, and it was almost time for the circus to go, and Mama and Papa had not come back for her, and she was wondering how she was going to obey their last instruction to stay with the circus till they came back for her, if the circus wasn't going to be there much longer.

It was a chill night, and it was going to start raining soon. Trixie shivered, and curled up in her stolen blanket. Maybe she could sneak into the tent, it would be warmer in there, and drier once the rain started.

There was a little flap at the base of the tent, one that could be raised just enough for a small seven-year-old to sneak through it. She squeezed under it and into the tent, then stood up and blinked when she found herself sat at the feet of the ringmaster. She leaned back to look up at him, all the way up, trying not to tremble when he gave her a hard look.

He looked scary, out of his costume, wearing instead a deep purple waistcoat and trousers. He folded his arms and looked down his nose at her.

“What are you doing in here?”

Trixie squeaked and backed away until she ran into the tent wall. Maybe she could get out the way she'd come in, and they wouldn't care.

His eyes flickered to the blanket she was holding. He blinked. “That's- were you the one who broke into the train the other night?”

She looked at the blanket in her hands, and threw it to him. “You can have it back!” she said hastily. “And I'll just go.” She scrambled to her feet and darted for the opening she saw in front of her, leading into the main area of the tent and hopefully an exit. Behind her, she heard the ringmaster yelp and suddenly he was in front of her, catching her around the middle and holding tight.

“Let's try this again,” he said, picking her up and setting her on top of a dressing table. “What are you doing in here? Honesty, please, I'll know if you're lying.”

“Um.” Trixie fidgeted and squirmed, refusing to look up at him. “It's going to rain,” she finally said, very quietly.

He raised an eyebrow at that. “Yes, and-?” he began, and then broke off. “Oh, of course.” He tossed his hands up in the air. “Of course!”

He turned and stormed away then, shouting for someone named Bobby, calling that they “had another one!” and for someone named Pablo to bring some food. A few minutes later, Trixie found herself eating ravenously from a plate of food she couldn't identify and didn't care to, while the ringmaster and a man who looked just like him watched her.

By the time she'd finished the plate of food, a girl with pink hair- one of the acrobats, Trixie thought- joined them. She hopped up onto the dressing table to sit beside Trixie, and gave her a smile.

The ringmaster leaned on the dressing table on Trixie's other side, and pinched the bridge of his nose. Trixie was sorry to put him through so much trouble, but she hadn't asked him to- he could have just thrown her out. Instead he leaned back on his hands.

"Where are your parents, kid?"

“They had-” Trixie hesitated, her parents' instructions coming back to her. She was never, ever to tell anyone what they did for a living. She shook her head. “They had to run an errand,” she said, instead. “They told me to stay here and they'd come pick me up later.”

“Did they now.” The man looked unimpressed, and the other one gave her a sympathetic look. "How long?"

Trixie stared at her feet, and mumbled, "Three days," at the ground. The ringmaster sighed again.

“Don't worry,” the second man said, putting his hand on the other's shoulder. “You'll be safe here, now. You're in good hands with us.”

“What is it about circuses?” the ringmaster asked, and caught the frightened and confused look on Trixie's face. He sighed. “I'm Robbie,” he said wearily. “That's Bobby, and the pink girl there is Stephanie. There's no need to be so frightened, we don't bite.”

She looked between them all. They were giving her kind looks. “So- I'm not in trouble?”

Robbie pressed his hand to his eyes, and shook his head. “No, but your parents are, if I ever see them. What makes someone just  _leave_ their children behind? And why is it  _always_ the circus?”

He dropped his hand and then made a few exasperated gestures before storming off, still muttering to himself. Trixie looked at the other two, hoping for answers, but Bobby had already hurried after him, so only Stephanie was left. She gave Trixie a smile and hesitantly wrapped her arms around her shoulders.

“You're not the first stray we've taken in here,” Stephanie said. “You know how sometimes people with animals they don't want will abandon them at farms?”

“Yeah?”

“The circus is like farms but for kids. Stingy and Pixel and Jives were all left here, too.” She looked sad. “Robbie let them all stay here, and he'll let you stay here, too, as long as you want. He'll take care of you.”

Trixie considered this for a moment. “Well- my parents  _did_ say to stay with the circus till they came back for me...”

-/-

Trixie wasn't sure how long she stayed in her little cubbyhole in the root cellar, listening to Rikki cook his food and talk to himself. Eventually, she heard the door swing closed, and the world grew silent again.

She took a few deep breaths, and crawled out of the cubbyhole. Okay. Be brave, Trixie. She patted her cheeks to steady herself, and hopped up the steps.

Time to act.

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You'll get more detailed backstories for the kids in volume two but this should do for now.


	23. Act IV: Danger and Adventure At the Circus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A rescue mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all: I'm very sorry about the wait. Those of you who follow my Tumblr will be up on the up and up, but the tl;dr version is that depression and work are collaborating to kick my ass and I just couldn't write for awhile.
> 
> Small content warning for this chapter, it involves some violence aimed at children, and mild injury of said children.

-/-

Act IV

-/-

The house was dark when Trixie slipped out of the root cellar. She closed the trapdoor slowly after her, eyes darting all over the yard looking for any sign of Rikki, or anyone else.

There was a flash of obnoxiously pink movement in the distance. Trixie gave one quick look around, and then darted off toward it, grabbing Stephanie around the middle and pulling her into the shadows. Stephanie looked panicked, but Trixie just hissed a frantic “Shhh, it's me!” at her and she fell silent.

 _You're okay_ , Stephanie signed, once they'd parted. Trixie nodded.

_Ella?_

_Rikki took her._

_I know, I heard him on the phone- he's got Robbie too, and Sportacus..._

_What does he want with them?_

Trixie cringed, and looked uncomfortable. She looked around nervously; after a moment, she signed, _Come on, let's go somewhere safer to talk. We're going to need to plan._

Stephanie nodded, and the two of them crept over the wall and off through the hills. Once they were well away, they stopped, sinking down to the damp, dew-covered grass to catch their breath. Trixie filled Stephanie in on what she'd heard in the house, about Rikki wanting to sell Ella and Robbie and Sportacus to collectors because they were magic.

“That's awful!” Stephanie hugged herself. “What are we going to do? We can't just leave them there!”

“Stephanie, we're _kids_! This is too big for us!” Trixie mirrored her pose. “We should go home and tell the uncles and let them handle it.”

“We don't have _time_. We should go ahead now, while Rikki is asleep. If we go home, who knows what could happen while we're gone?”

“If Rikki is asleep, then not much. If he's awake to do anything, then what _exactly_ are we supposed to do about it?”

“I don't _know_! But _something_!” Stephanie paced and tried to think. Everything was so... she couldn't _focus_.

-/-

Ella was pacing. And thinking. It helped, pacing.

She had two priorities: stay alive, and get out of this room. After that, she could try to find the others, but she was of no use to anyone while she was locked in this room. She stopped in the middle and looked around, trying to assess everything at her disposal.

Okay, the room. Contents: one rug, worn and faded. One three-legged stool, short. No windows. Closed by a heavy door held by at least three locks, from what she'd heard. The doorknob was missing from the inside.

Not much to be done with that. Rikki had been very unhelpful to not leave her any convenient windows with bars she could pull away or sheets she could knot to get out. So what about what she had on her? He hadn't bothered taking anything she had, so maybe there was something in her pockets? She emptied them, laying everything out on the floor in front of her.

Contents: one apple, brought in case Sportacus might need one. One bit of string, about as long as her arm, because it always paid to have a bit of string on you. A tube of chapstick (cherry flavor). A bobby pin. This made her think longingly of Trixie, who could probably pick the locks with it. How many times had Trixie offered to teach her? She should have let her. She hadn't thought she'd ever need it.

Ella vowed that if she ever got out of here she would let Trixie teach her anything she liked about surviving on the streets.

A warmth spread through the air at the thought. Ella felt oddly calmed by it.

She stopped pacing and tilted her head at the door. She knew her assets now. How to use them to get out?

-/-

“Okay,” Trixie said. “What if we do that thing- the one that is like scouting but sounds cooler?”

“Reconnaissance?”

“That's it! Let's... run reconnaissance, and see what's going on in the house. If Rikki is asleep, we can try to get them out, if he's awake, then we beat it and get the uncles. Except Tobby, because I'm not handing him to Rikki, too.”

Stephanie chewed her lip thoughtfully, and then nodded. “Okay. Let's go.”

-/-

Robbie was pacing. Sportacus had long since passed out on him, and his breathing was shallow; Robbie was fuzzy on the effects of iron on elves, since Amma had always steered his education toward Fae biology, but even if it wasn't deadly itself, it was clearly effecting his health in other ways.

He paused in his pacing to lean over the elf, brushing gentle fingers over his forehead and cheeks to check for fever, checking his pulse points, trying to make him a little more comfortable. He wished he'd had the foresight to bring some fruit for him, or even some water- he'd been in such a hurry to _get_ to him that he hadn't stopped to plan ahead. And all he had on him were seeds, and seeds-

-Robbie stopped pacing, and touched the pouch of seeds in his waistcoat. His breathing stilled, and then he took in a long, deep breath. He couldn't magic iron, and so much of the room was reinforced with it. And the room had also been made to absorb Fae magic, so even his most basic spells were of no use to him. Even the glow of his wings was fading as the room leeched his magic away from him.

But Fae magic wasn't the only magic at his disposal.

Robbie's lip curled with distaste. He didn't like using his mother's magic, which always came with a price, but from the looks of things, he was out of options. He took the pouch of seeds from his waistcoat, and spilled them all out on the floor. He glanced over at Sportacus.

“Sorry,” he murmured, and knelt in front of them.

Most of them would have to be a sacrifice, he thought, as he arranged them in the appropriate patterns on the floor. They wouldn't be of any use to _her_ , of course, but that wasn't the point of a sacrifice- the point was to give up something of value, and these were of value. And if not, well. Maybe she'd take an iou.

There was a stick of blue carpenter's chalk in his pocket, which he used to mark out the circle, and then, which much grunting and huffing from the exertion, managed to get Sportacus into the middle of it. After that came a small, pocket-sized clothes brush, and it was the work of only a few minutes to sweep up enough dust from the floor to make a little pile. He scooped it into his hands and laid it, too, in the middle of the circle. It wasn't much, just enough to hold a single seed, and he hoped that would be enough for her magic to work.

Everything was ready. Robbie squinted in the dimming light from his wings, and decided it would have to be good enough. It wasn't like he had everything he needed available to hand, or he wouldn't need to ask her for help in the first place.

He took his place in the middle of the circle and held out his hands, palms up and to either side of him, and opened himself to the magic he kept locked away, the deep-running undercurrent of his mother's magic that he never gave any mind to and tried not to use if he could help it.

The magic flowed from his hands and into the circle, swirling around him in violent shades of orange and blue, clashing horribly and swirling together until the room was lit up like a dance club at two in the morning. He shut his eyes against the blinding light, but after only a few minutes the light faded and he opened his eyes slowly. There was an afterimage dancing in front of his vision, but once it faded he looked down at the seeds he'd arranged around the circle and saw that they were all gone, marks charred into the concrete where they'd lain.

Something sharp shot through him at that. The elves had been counting on those seeds.

“I'll replace them,” he said quietly, and knelt over the one remaining seed, standing on its end where he'd left it. The dust was gone as well, but it didn't matter- hopefully it had given enough magic to the seed for Robbie's plan to work.

He carried the seed to the door and lay it at the threshold, and covered it with both hands. He could feel the magic pulsing from it, and began the complicated process of channeling the magic to the right places. After a moment, he took a step back, and then another, and then he dove for the floor as he felt a _click_ in his magical awareness.

He'd gotten away just in time- the seed exploded into a tree, cracking the door to splinters and shattering part of the ceiling before it came to a halt. There wasn't enough space for him and Sportacus to squeeze through, but he could deal with that in a minute. First he had to get Sportacus on his feet.

There was only one apple on the tree, but it was glistening a vibrant shade of red that made its surroundings look washed out and faded. Robbie plucked it and carried it over to Sportacus, nudging him.

“Come on, Sportaflop,” he said urgently. “Take a bite of this. I need you on your feet.”

He managed, with some coaxing, to get Sportacus to take a bite, and once he'd swallowed the first one the elf sought out the next on his own, and by the time he was halfway through the apple he'd sat up and was able to hold it himself, though Robbie still supported him with one hand on his back while he ate.

There were two seeds in the apple, shiny and as black as emptiness. Sportacus tucked these away into his suit, and let Robbie help him to his feet.

“Robbie, you're-”

“Not now,” Robbie snapped. “We can talk about this later.”

Sportacus nodded, and they made their slow way up the stairs to the door, Robbie supporting Sporacus as they did. He was on his feet, but only barely. The iron in the room was still weakening him, as were the cuffs on his wrist. Robbie would have to get him well away and stuff a few more apples into his belly before he could properly start approaching normal again.

The tree was already wilting and dying by the time they reached it, the magic that had brought it to life already fading from it. Sportacus rested a hand on it, and murmured a few words of gratitude to it before following Robbie out into the hallway.

Robbie stopped, and looked around. He still needed to get Ella, but he couldn't just leave Sportacus alone.

There was also Rikki- there was no way he hadn't heard that. Why hadn't he come to try stopping his captives from escaping?

-/-

Trixie and Stephanie found their way to a room with several padlocks on it. Trixie reasoned that a lock on the outside meant that Glanni didn't want whatever was in getting out, which meant they could only benefit by opening it, and got to work picking the locks. It took longer than she'd wanted- she was out of practice from living in comfort for three years- but eventually all three locks hung open. It took both of them to pull the door open, but just as soon as it was Stephanie was tackled to the ground roughly. There was a blur of pink and purple, and then Trixie pulled Ella off of Stephanie and hissed a frantic “It's us, you ninny!” at her. Ella stilled hesitantly, and sagged. Trixie let go of her, and both of them helped Stephanie to her feet.

 _Sorry_.

“It's fine,” Stephanie said, brushing herself off. “You had no way of knowing it was us and not Rikki.”

Ella nodded, and gave them both a questioning look. “We came to rescue you,” Trixie said. “Do you know where Robbie and Sportacus are?”

She shook her head. _Downstairs_ , was all she knew for sure, having not had the foresight to pay attention to where Rikki brought her when he was carrying her away.

“I guess we keep doing reconnaissance,” Trixie said, a little hesitant. The ease with which they'd been able to free Ella wasn't sitting right with her, but if they had luck they might as well use it. They headed toward the stairs, Stephanie in the lead and Trixie watching their backs, Ella tucked safely between them.

At the top of the stairs, they heard an almighty crash coming from somewhere below. It shook the entire house and sent all three girls sprawling, thankfully not tumbling down the stairs. A door somewhere behind them slammed open and Rikki skidded into the hallway, snarling when he saw them.

“You!” he shouted. “How did you get in here?”

“Run!” Trixie called, shoving both of her companions toward the stairwell. They took off, but Trixie hung back and held up her fists, glaring up at Rikki with a dare in her eyes. “Come near them again and I'll climb up there and clock you one.”

Rikki chuckled. “Adorable,” he said. “Now if you will excuse me, my meal ticket just ran downstairs, so I'll be getting her back.”

He made to reach for her, to shove her away, but she just dodged under his arm, rolling between his feet and pulling them out from under him. He dropped to his knees in surprise, and she grabbed the back of his shirt, hauling herself up onto his back and locking her legs around his waist.

“Why you-! You little-!” He made to grab for her, but she bit his hand and then pulled back on his shirt, unbalancing him as she dropped off of him, dancing back out of his reach. He hissed. “Hold _still_ , you brat!”

-/-

Stephanie wasn't quite sure how she found Robbie and Sportacus so quickly, but they were coming out of a room with a dying tree in the doorway when the girls approached. Ella leaned on her knees to catch her breath while Stephanie hurled herself at Robbie, throwing her arms around him and burying her face in his front, taking in deep gulps of air to try calming herself.

Robbie sagged in relief when he saw them, then tensed. “Where's Trixie?” he asked, prompting both girls to turn around. Their eyes widened.

“She must have stayed back to stop Rikki following us!” She made to turn, intent on going back for the other- she wasn't going to let Trixie down the way she had Ella- but Robbie grabbed her shirt and pulled her back.

“No,” he said. “You two help Sportacus get out of her. I'll go get Trixie.” He crouched in front of her and gave her a stern look. “You're to go and keep going, do you understand? Don't bother waiting, I'll catch up as quick as I can. Just get Sportacus home. He's your priority, not me. _Do you understand_?”

He gave each of them stern looks, and they both nodded, both clearly frightened by the implications in his tone. They turned to Sportacus, supporting him on either side, and the three began making their way down the hall. Robbie watched them turn the corner and then turned as well, heading in the direction the girls had come from. Magic was crackling around him as he walked, dyeing the air a hazy shade of purple.

Rikki's manor was like a maze, but he had enough of a bond with his kids that he was able to follow the pull to Trixie and only took one wrong turn- soon he heard shouting and took off at a run to where it was coming from.

He came up on a fight between Trixie and Rikki, a surprisingly one-sided fight on Trixie's part. No matter how hard he tried, Rikki wasn't able to get ahold of her; she was always just where his hands weren't. Her luck was bound to run out, though: she grabbed at his arm, attempting to pull him down, but instead of trying to grab at her with his free hand, he flung the arm she was clinging to out and caught her against the wall with a crack that made Robbie's blood run cold. She fell limp at that, and Rikki tossed her behind him without a care.

Robbie's heart was in his throat, and he misted the last few feet up the steps, past Rikki, and caught Trixie just before she landed. He stood, breathing heavily, and clutched her too his chest, shaking the whole time. Angry magic pulsed around him, crackled along his skin and danced through the air between him and Rikki. Rikki took one look at him and took off, sliding down the banister and disappearing into the house.

Robbie's instinct said to pursue, but Trixie was a priority. He swore vehemently and turned his attention to her. Her eyes were open, glazed slightly where she gazed up at him.

“Shoul'n' say those worz,” she mumbled. He gave her a weak smile.

“Stay with me, Tricky,” he murmured, and pressed his fingertips to her forehead. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the magic around him, on channeling it through himself and into Trixie, on changing it from angry, brutal magic to gentle healing magic as he went. It was a difficult process, as the magic had been summoned and now wanted to be used, but overloading Trixie would do far more harm than good.

After what felt like an age, he felt her settling against him more easily, the damage from her fight gone. He banished the unused magic and pulled her into a hug, wrapping long arms around her and holding her close. She was almost vibrating against him, but he was feeling pretty shaky as well, and sagged back against the wall while he used one hand to feel the back of her head, checking for any knots or lingering bruises.

“Feels fine,” she said. “Like it never happened at all.”

“Good.” He set her down, albeit reluctantly, and took her hand. “Let's just go, okay?”

“Okay.”

-/-

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this chapter is going to be the point where I do the most editing in the rewrite later, cause it just isn't up to snuff as it is. It'll just have to stand for now; the more important thing at the moment is being able to press on.
> 
> I'm going to try not to wait another month to get the next chapter out but given I've just had three crashes right behind the other I'm not going to make any kind of promises.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on Tumblr at sportabean for bts material on this and my other fic as well!


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